PRINCE OF PERSIA: WARRIOR WITHIN - PC/PS2/GC/XBOX
FAQ/Walkthrough by J Woodrow
Version 1.0 - 2006/03/03
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P R I N C E O F P E R S I A
-- Warrior Within --
Written by Corey May and Michael Wendshuh
-- Adaptation by J Woodrow --------------------------------------------
Breathless footsteps run to the blur of an ancient walled city at first
light of dawn. Towers and rooftops glow as if on fire. The sound of
running and labored gasping for breath echoes down narrow twisting
streets. An ominous growl rises behind. A hooded figure frantically flees
along deserted alleys, under a network of rafters and lantern-lit arches.
He vaults a fallen beam, looks back, quickly right, then left down a maze
of alleys, and takes flight once more.
Suddenly in his path a rabid dog, slavering jaws bared. The greater
danger comes behind. He dives past, and with a yelp the wretched cur is
swept aside by the black rushing cloud that boils in his wake.
The young man swings to high rafters, searching for escape. Whatever
pursues him has awesome power, it splinters the heavy beams like
matchwood. He jumps to the ground and runs once more through the twisting
cobbled streets. His feet pound wildly. From the relentless shadow of
destruction tentacles reach out.
He jumps scattered pots, smashed moments after by the dark force rushing
ever closer. He stumbles to a dead end, throws his shoulder to a heavy
door, again and again, and hammers a fist uselessly. Cornered, he turns,
draws swords and stands tall to face the ravening beast.
In his mind's eye, a flash of events that brought him to this.
A sailing ship plows through a storm, its bow plunges to the waves.
Lightning flickers. Rain whips the cloaked figure of the Prince of
Persia.
"This storm shows us no mercy," he shouts above the wind. "We shall
respond in kind! Reef the mainsail."
His men struggle up the rigging. He puts a hand to the shoulder of the
mate.
"Bring us closer to the wind."
Above the storm he senses something at the edge of the dark.
A hail of flaming grappling irons shaft out of the night to hook on to
the rails. From the deck of a looming pirate ship, savage creatures haul
ropes. The Prince's ship is dragged remorselessly towards that of the
Pirates. He shouts courage to his men.
"Ready your weapons!"
He shrugs off his cloak and holds sword aloft.
Men slide from the rigging. Fireballs crash down on their ship. Sailors
rush to the deck, swords in hand. A horde of pirate raiders confront
them. The Prince stares open-mouthed. Framed in lightning the Pirates
howl from their ship - not men but hellish creatures that brandish
hideous weapons and utter low animal cries. As they draw nearer an Amulet
the Prince wears on his breastplate glows as if in warning. He clasps it
tight. The horned demons growl, fangs bared and red eyes burning with
hate. They heave the ropes that drag the helpless ship ever closer.
With no regard for the icy lash of rain and salt spray, from below decks
on the massive attack vessel a near naked female figure steps slowly to
her stage.
Pirates haul ropes. The ships crash together. The creatures roar in
triumph, then fall to silence, turn and part as the figure appears and
walks among them. A voluptuous young woman, no more than a girl but sure
of her power. Cropped black hair, black lips, black boots to her thighs,
barely attired in strips of black leather. She carries a sword, moves
among her minions, caresses one and another as a pet. On the other ship
the men are awed, the Prince transfixed. The cruel smile vanishes from
her lips. She snarls a command.
"Kill him."
The creatures swarm aboard. One sailor falls to a sword thrust, another
has throat cut and on a growl of triumph from his attacker is thrown
overboard. With a challenging cry, the defiant Prince vaults a burning
rail, sword in hand.
Two of the pirate creatures circle. He throws up a block as they strike
together, then returns swiftly to cut the first down with a volley of
blows. It collapses to a cloud of foul yellow dust and vanishes with a
shriek. Though they bleed these are not even half-human creations. He has
no time to consider, the other is on him. He vaults nimbly over and
tosses it to the sea.
All around are the sounds of the struggle and clash of steel. Explosions
rock the blood-soaked deck as the Prince advances and cuts down another
Pirate. He moves about the open, fighting, blocking, and holding back one
and another until he can slash with his sword. He tries different moves
and learns swiftly. He executes on each attacker whichever combination of
sword strike seems best, with the same shriek and the same crumple to
blood and yellow dust at its end.
Temporarily blocked by burning debris, an explosion clears the way and he
fights on. A missile strikes the crows nest high above; a luckless sailor
is blown out, and falls with a cry. His body smashes through the wooden
deck, tumbling the Prince down the shattered gap to the hold.
The bilges are awash. He takes a scoop of water to clear his head and
gropes through the darkened hold. A few of his men fight a desperate
hand-to-hand struggle with Pirates at the bow. Too late to save them, the
Prince finishes their attackers with a furious charge and a flying swing
about a deck prop. Though inhuman, these creatures it seems are sentient
beings, as one offers a dying curse:
"You have made yourself many enemies this day."
Their number will surely become fewer as they make themselves known. He
moves on below the other side of the ship, likewise flooded. A harpoon
bursts through timbers, narrowly missing his head, and a second and third
close beside. Water sprays in. He runs on, and is confronted by another
Pirate raider. About to strike, the Prince is knocked hard as the
attacking ship crashes into his, splintering the hold and crushing the
hapless Pirate. Yet more water rushes in. His ship is surely doomed. The
Prince moves on up a short flight of stairs, but is trapped by burning
debris. Dead crewmen lie at every corner. He spots a rope stretched taut,
grasps tight and cuts it with his sword. He is hoist aloft, springing
with its release beyond the deck above, flying through the air, where he
is launched into the soft folds of a billowing sail, tattered and licked
by flames. With his blade to slow the fall, the Prince slides to a spar
and drops onto the open deck. He looks to the bridge.
The girl in black stands imperious. She gazes down on him without
emotion. A sailor rushes behind her, sword raised. She flicks one casual
blade and cuts him down at a stroke.
On the open deck below, creatures surround the Prince.
"Let's finish him," says one. "Help me with this."
As many as there are they prove no match for the Prince's soon practiced
blade.
"You'll have to do better than that," he advises. "I will not allow you
to stand in my way."
Anger rises as he sees the bodies of his men all around. Fiery arrows
streak down on a deck already ablaze. He leaps over a massive grappling
iron to make his way to the bridge and the one responsible for the
destruction of his ship. With a furious cry he clears a last Pirate from
the gangway to the bridge and turns to confront the she-devil there. Her
near naked figure steps out above.
"You will never reach our shores alive," she warns.
"For your sake, you'd better hope I don't."
He races up on the bridge to challenge her.
"Flee," she warns, "while it's still an option."
His only thought is for revenge, and their swords clash.
She proves a much better fighter than any of her minions. The Prince is
forced to block her furious attack again and again. She probes with her
sword, tempting him to drop his guard but then launches a flurry of
strokes, which hit him with a shock.
"You call yourself a master swordsman?"
He has experience enough to spot weakness. Her training is excellent but
a little too rigid. Her attacks take a pattern. He blocks patiently then
awaits a characteristic upward lunge with both blades - devastating
should he prove unwary - followed always by a vicious single swipe. He
chooses this moment to counter, and manages at least one telling strike
that sends her gasping. Recovery is swift. He blocks and repeats.
At a moment he finds the fight going his way she strikes fast, slashing
across his face. Though his reflexes are sharp he cannot take the sting
from the blow and is cut deep, eyebrow to cheek. He reels back.
"You bitch!"
He flies at her in fury, and strikes hard. She recovers. They circle
again. The girl lowers her sword in contempt as he retreats to catch his
breath, slaps her hip with a blade, and taunts him.
"You don't honestly believe you can defeat me?"
He sets in to try again. They lock swords. He summons all his energy to
force her back by degrees.
"I grow tired of this," he says.
"Is that the best you have to offer?" her reply. "Tell me when you're
going to be ready to fight for real."
Space on the bridge is limited, and the Prince moves cautiously about,
holds his block and waits his chance to strike always at the same point
in her rigid assault, though she now moves swiftly aside from his attack.
At a moment he stumbles, she stamps with a heel, and stands waiting for
him to regain his feet. Their swords lock a second time.
"It seems the Empress overestimated your abilities."
The Prince is momentarily distracted.
"The Empress?"
How could she know his intent? The girl takes swift advantage of his
lapse in concentration. She knocks the weapon from his hand, clutches him
by the throat and delivers a stunning blow, kicks him brutally to the
head, and casts him contemptuously aside. He sinks to unconsciousness,
her black-lipped sneer burned on his mind.
"The Island of Time..."
The Prince drifts in the current. Swirled in the depths of the ocean the
memory of a voice comes to him.
"...the place where the Sands were created. The place from which the
Maharajah stole the Hourglass."
In a tent in the desert wilderness the Prince takes counsel of a wise Old
Man.
"And what if I could reach this island?" the Prince asks.
"They say the Maharajah found portals there," the Old Man goes on. "Where
one could pass backwards through time."
He reaches among his utensils with sightless eyes.
"Back through time?" the Prince wonders. "To the birthplace of the
Sands..."
The wizened face of the bearded Old Man frowns with foreboding as the
Prince speaks.
"Something terrible happened when our army traveled to the Maharajah's
palace."
In a flash of years before, the Prince recalls plunging the Dagger of
Time into a mysterious hourglass.
"You found the Sands of Time?"
"Worse! I opened them."
His mind is scarred with the memory of terrible demon ogres unleashed at
the bidding of an evil Vizier when he was tricked into opening the
hourglass and the Sands were released.
"Whosoever shall open the Sands must die," recites the Old Man.
"I was forced to kill those I fought beside. Those I had loved."
"But now an unstoppable beast chases you."
The Old Man unstops a flask.
"For the first time in my life," the Prince looks to his mentor. "I am
afraid."
The wise mystic has no words of comfort. "And you will die."
The Prince tries to explain.
"I used the Sands themselves to reverse time, making it as if the
Hourglass was never opened."
In so doing, he has irreparably altered the true course of Time.
"The beast - the Dahaka - is the guardian of the Timeline. You were
supposed to die, so it will catch you and see to it that you meet your
fate."
He raises a hand to still the Prince, set to leave. The young man is
determined, and speaks firmly.
"It is better to try than to wait here for death."
"Madness! Even if you manage to reach the Island, you'll still have to
face the Empress of Time."
"I will travel back in time and prevent the Sands from ever being made,"
the Prince reasons. "If there are no Sands, the Dahaka will have no
quarrel with me."
"Go then, my Prince, but know this: your journey will not end well. You
cannot change your fate." The Old Man turns away. "No man can."
-- WRECKAGE -------------------------------------------------------------
The Prince comes to lying on a rocky shore, pecked at by squawking black
birds. He stands quickly and shrugs them away. All around in the gloom of
dawn the wreckage of his ship is tossed in the surf, but no sign of his
companions. Nor yet their attackers. As more birds threaten, he feels
instinctively to his back.
"My swords! Gone."
He picks up a length of wood and strikes his tormentors. Each fades in a
wild cawing flurry of feathers, and not only blood but also the curious
yellow substance of sand. No ordinary wildlife this; he is in a cursed
place of demons.
Though strewn with spars and wreckage, the turbulent cove is devoid of
life, but for more possessed crows which caw and circle to assail him. He
wearily hacks them aside, and considers his lot.
"My crew! All are lost. I will find the one who did this," his voice
cracks with emotion, "and she will pay."
Scattered on the shore is the wreckage of many ships, not just his own.
Here too, as a warning perhaps, dismembered corpses strung on a gibbet.
The cove is set into a cavern of rock. Waterfalls tumble to the shore. A
broken walkway leads up. On steps at its foot, lit brands gutter in the
wind. He moves to them, the only way off the shore. He negotiates gaps
and ledges, works his way steadily upward. He passes a decorative stone
basin where water flows as the tears of a maiden carved at its head. The
clear fountain water is greatly refreshing. At a wall of split rock he
dislodges nesting birds, which scatter but do not threaten him. He works
meticulously around rocks and ledges, not risking a fall from these
cliffs on a clumsy maneuver. He looks out on the cold misted ocean, wind
and waves and the desultory flapping of dislodged birds the only sounds
in this desolate place.
He comes soon to solid stone walls of a fortress built into the rock. He
must find a way in. At a gap between rock platforms he runs out on a
wall, passes easily from one to the next - easily that is for the young
agile Prince, but much beyond any lesser man. He comes to broken columns,
part of another walkway still partially erected above. He clutches at the
most slender and shuffles to its top, reaches back to another and on to
the next. From his hold on the last column he jumps to grab on to the
walkway, and pulls up.
A thick tree trunk blocks up the way ahead, evidence of disuse of the
walkway for very many years. Close by stand massive wooden gates. The
foot of one gate has rotted out. He ducks and rolls through.
"Stop the intruder!" a voice shouts, "He's the one the Empress wants
dead."
Enemies lie in wait, hideous horned creatures the same devilish spawn as
the Pirate raiders, their words confirmation that this is the domain of
the Empress of Time and these her willing servants. He engages swiftly,
using his length of wood to batter one aside as he deals with the next.
He steals a weapon from one and then turns to finish both. The Prince had
not sought this confrontation, but with each enemy slain he took account
of the lives of his murdered crew. Now inside the fortress walls there
would surely be more sentries ready in wait. He clambers on stone blocks
to shallow steps, broken in front, to make his way further in.
Wind howls. With another agile run along a wall he comes to a broken
platform with a bigger gap beyond. Set about in niches in the fortress
walls stand statues of knights in armor, one at his side now crumbled as
ruinous vegetation takes hold. The gap ahead is crossed at a run with a
leap backwards off it, to land face to face with more Raiders.
"Let's finish him."
Practice for his new sword.
Tall gates stand open ahead. All seems quiet. He makes his way over
blocks and stones to an iron gate that bars his way. Beside it a
collapsed block, off which he climbs over the wall in front. On the other
side of the gate, stone statues stand mute yet impressive. These appear
to be of the Griffin, a mythical beast he had learned of in school, with
the head and wings of an eagle and the body of a lion. What could be its
significance here? Light breaks through the ceiling above and tree
branches hook in. A door at one side is firmly shut. The Prince moves
through a high arched doorway to gray light ahead.
High in front of him stands the entrance to a mighty castle building. He
is certain that his quarry has passed this way.
"Come on, I know you're out there," the Prince mutters as he looks about.
"Show yourself."
Black boots step out nearby.
"Where I come from," continues the Prince, "we face our opponents. And if
our enemy is unarmed we offer them a sword."
On this last he slashes quickly at the creeping figure of the girl in
black behind, cuts her gasping to the ground. In a second, Raiders gather
to her aid. She gets to her feet and commands them.
"Kill him!"
The first minion charges, yellow eyes burning with blind hate, and is
knocked to the ground. The Prince steals its weapon and impales the
wretch with it. Whirling through the air, he lashes out and the rest are
dealt death in similarly gruesome style. The Prince turns to his now
unprotected opponent. She gives a look of loathing and signals to a
second wave of loyal servants as she makes her escape. Once more
surrounded, the Prince readies his weapons.
----------------------------------------------
YOU GAIN
S P I D E R S W O R D
This ancient sword is common
on the Island.
----------------------------------------------
"He's no match for us."
"Few can match blades with me," he warns.
Though at first sight outnumbered, the Prince executes dazzling moves
upon the attackers as he sees fit, whirling and slashing, chopping and
slicing, dealing decapitation and dismemberment until the last shriek.
"Slaughtered," comments the Prince with some understatement. He sheaths
his swords and looks around.
He stands on a short ruined platform. Stunted vegetation gnarls the foot
of broken steps that lead away to end abruptly in collapsed blocks. Much
higher are seen the rest of the flight, at what must be the Fortress
Entrance. He will have to work another way to get within.
He returns inside to find a door now ajar, through which no doubt his
craven quarry fled. He takes sustenance at a fountain basin.
-- THE RUINED FORTRESS --------------------------------------------------
The gray stone passage in which he stands is much damaged by time. The
floor bears intricate decoration, now broken and ruined. He leaps first
one gap and then another. In his way a small wooden rack, that when
smashed reveals a useful weapon. He returns to the open through a doorway
ahead.
Evil black birds watch balefully, orange eyes aglow. At a squawk they
rise to a dense flock and form themselves as an ungodly black-cloaked
demon. It rises from one knee to flourish a sword. The Prince, undaunted,
rushes to its challenge.
On a narrow stone bridge, with circular decoration cracked at its center,
the combatants clash. The Prince learns soon that this Crow Master is
swift to block and swifter to strike. Though tall, it takes little effort
for him to vault over, and it seems weakest then. It stumbles with a
shocked shrill cry as he deals down a savage blow on its back. A flurry
of dust and feathers rise. He repeats the move but the creature blocks.
He tries again and gets through, and again it gasps and reels. He keeps
up this leaping tactic, though it oftentimes blocks, and with persistence
breaks through.
The demon collapses and scatters as screeching birds. These flap wildly
and rise in a furious cloud, then settle on a higher ledge, where as the
Crow Master they reform. The Prince senses that on that very path his
course lies, and searches about for some means to get up to it. As he
moves away a thick watery voice echoes.
"You'll need to try harder if you hope to best me."
"Your time would be better spent seeking sanctuary," advises the Prince.
"Run while you still can."
The platform created by the broken floor allows no way forward. Steps in
front lead only to a closed wooden gate. Twin columns stand at one side,
too high to reach on their thick bases. At the side of his entrance a low
wall rises to a ledge. An upward wall run and jump back bring him to a
small platform formed by its canopy. The Prince looks across to broken
walkways where the Crow Master waits. It seems almost to be showing him
the way, daring him to come to it and face its challenge. Very well. The
two slender columns are between them. The Prince runs out on the wall,
leaps at a trail of ivy aligned to it, and catches the first column. With
a swift shuffle round he grabs for the second, and straight from it, over
bottomless depths to land on the walkway with its stern standing
obstacle.
"So it's a fight you want?" the Prince shouts. "I can smell your fear
from here."
"Unfortunate that you have fallen so easily," returns the avian demon. "I
find this display of weakness surprising."
The narrow walkway is not the best battleground but a few timely attacks
of downward slashes upon it bring the towering foe to a crumble of
feathers and dust as before. Yet again it reforms to the black-cloaked
figure on a higher ledge.
"Rise up, Prince, let us continue this, I'm not finished yet."
"I grow tired of this," he replies. "Why do you bother?"
The Prince moves to it in determined pursuit. By a wall run to a block
and another to return, he climbs ledges overhead, and on to a precarious
hanging column. A last jump and he faces the Crow Master once more.
"Do you see now how it's done?" it mocks.
The Prince is unmoved. "I have faced far worse than the likes of you."
He moves constantly, rolls at any attack and leaps in at first pause, not
letting the Crow Master's mighty sweeps come under his guard to knock him
off his feet. Still the demon taunts him.
"I am sure you can do better than that."
With but a little more exertion the Prince hacks at the Crow Master and
lands a blow that cleaves the demon through. It dissipates once more, and
this time he senses for good. There comes grudging respect even from this
unholy creation for the skill of the Prince. A disembodied voice echoes:
"It is an honor to die by your hand."
The demon leaves behind an impressive sword, which the Prince eagerly
snatches up.
This combat has led him up to high ledges. Beside him is a barred gate.
Broken steps downward lead nowhere and there is no obvious vantage point.
On a wall nearby, a brightly colored square tile hints at a method by
which the barred gate might open; a symbol upon it matches one on the
gate. The Prince runs nimbly up over the tile. As he does so the tile
illuminates. The pressure of his feet triggers a mechanism, and a hidden
switch activates. The gate behind is now unlocked.
He enters and looks down on a ruined chamber of ivy-covered walls and
broken stone pillars. Raiders stand waiting on the floor.
"Alert the others!" a voice commands, "Help me with this."
To one side, a long red curtain reaches almost to the floor. In the
manner he employed on the sail of his ship, the Prince runs out to it,
strikes through the material with his sword, thus braking his descent,
and slides smoothly down. Safe to the ground, he whirls into the waiting
pack. The last beaten Raider groans as he falls.
"Forgive my failure."
With the room now clear the Prince makes exploration. An impassible gap
splits the stone floor ahead. No way through the doorway there from here,
and no other exit. He sees up above a serviceable walkway that surely
leads somewhere. A pillar to one side offers access. He runs up off a
block at its base to grab hold of a ledge, shuffles to one side and hauls
up on the walkway, covered in rubble and home to a Raider. He sees it off
with scant exertion.
"Others will rise to take my place," comes its dying threat.
Very well, the Prince's thought. Come one, come all. He will be ready.
The walkway ends abruptly, but he sees a ledge around a pillar nearby
that he might reach by a wall run. Clinging on here, he shimmies around
the wall, over the misty depth of the impassable gap on the floor below.
Once round, he drops off to a niche and from there to a block on the
floor of a passage.
This leads in pale light to a gap rent across it. He hears a mechanical
squeak and sees below in the gap a spinning saw blade, grinding sparks.
Although wary of its likely effect, it seems somehow stuck fast and he
runs easily over to the other side of the gap. As he rounds a corner at a
run, spiked poles rise from the floor with a hollow 'Clunk!' to surprise
him, but likewise halt uselessly. These must once have been formidable
defenses but were now crippled by decay. He looks on, to a bright
shimmering doorway ahead. He approaches cautiously but sees that the
sheen is nothing more harmful than a shower of water, and passes safely
beneath.
Lichen-filled basins of water stand either side of a short dank passage
of arches and pillars. Leaves swirl in drafts, the ruined chamber where
he stands is open to the skies. He steps warily forward. To either side,
a pair of thick square pillars bear a tile with a distinctive blood red
symbol. A thin stream of intensely glowing yellow liquid runs from each
pillar to gullies in the stone floor, forming an intricate design ending
in a spiral, where a vortex of light rises. As the Prince steps forward
he is stopped in his tracks.
The girl in black looks over her shoulder with a sly grin. He draws his
weapon from his back and runs forward. She stands on the edge of a
circular platform, an abyss beyond. There is nowhere for her to go, she
cannot escape his sword this time. To his astonishment the girl is drawn
into the air and appears suspended by some unknown force. She gives a
moan of satisfaction. He runs to strike her with his sword but connects
only with air. She is gone!
"Madness!" he gasps, "What magic is this?"
Sparkles of sand glitter. As he stands bewildered, his body is wracked by
a spasm and he too is drawn up into a beam of glowing light.
Before his eyes, the decay of time is rolled back. Clinging vegetation
shrinks its clawing roots from broken pillars that resume to the full
splendor of light and decoration as new.
The beam of glowing energy released the Prince from its grip. As he fell
to the floor and looked around, a boot kicked out to his head and knocked
him down. The girl in black ran off.
----------------------------------------------
YOU GAIN
R E C A L L
This power lets you turn back time to a period
when you were safe
----------------------------------------------
It seemed to be the same chamber room, but now very different. He could
not explain it. No sign of ruin or decay, all brightly lit with candles
and torches. He turned back between the four pillars, their tile symbols
here brightly illuminated. Ahead lay the doorway with its curtain of
water.
He paused at a now pristine fountain basin and tried to make sense of the
circumstance.
"It seems I have discovered one of the time-traveling portals the Old Man
spoke of."
-- FIRST STEPS IN THE PAST ----------------------------------------------
Whatever lay beyond this portal he must chase down the girl in black. She
could explain this. He steeled himself and left the portal chamber
through the curtain of water.
Torches now lighted the passage beyond. Where daylight streamed before
only thin rays penetrated at slits. As he rounded the first corner he
heard traps spring into action. Here again were the twin spiked poles,
now fully operational in their deadly intent, spinning back and forth
across his path, raising dust as they whipped round and round. He stepped
carefully by and found a second hazard at the turn. Wall blades had
become active, buzzing relentlessly up and down either side of a pit of
spikes. Across it, a Raider waited; it seemed that this Past bore no
better welcome from its inhabitants than the Present he left behind. He
observed each rise and fall of the saw blade and judged the moment to run
over on the wall. The lone sentry offered little sport. With a few
acrobatic jumps the Prince grabbed it and snatched its weapon, which he
then tossed in its ugly face.
"I can't beat him alone," groaned the dying creature.
He came presently to a chamber of decorated pillars and high balconies.
In its now complete state he could scarcely recognize it as the room he
had entered by the hanging red curtain. What had been open to the skies
was here fully roofed, the bottomless pit in front covered by stone
floor. A number of Raiders waited on it.
"Stop the intruder," one commanded, "Destroy him!"
He moved swiftly, breaking their rash attack. At the center of the room
was a short column that he could use to spin and slash as he went, and
the many stone blocks and pillars proved useful as foundation for flying
lunges. A weapon rack standing to one side was easily smashed, yielding a
convenient projectile. He was learning new tricks and methods of dealing
with the inhuman foe as he went, and relished each opportunity for
combat.
"Honor and glory shall be ours," one creature declared.
"You should be honored to die by my sword," he replied.
When he had peace the Prince made further exploration. Opposite the door
at which he entered was another, though solidly shut. To one side of the
room was a screen of latticed arched windows but no way to the room
beyond. A high wall switch caught his eye. He looked up around the
balconies to find a route to it but saw no easy access. He remembered
that he had once climbed up on a pillar, but there was no convenient
fallen block to mount this time. Beside his entrance, a slender column
looked easily climbable and proved so. He jumped back to a ledge on a
pillar.
Up on the balcony, a simple wall run brought him to a ledge around a
square plinth, atop which sat another stern carved likeness of a Griffin.
It seemed an important figure to whatever manner of inhabitants dwelt
here. Around a short section of walkway beyond this he came to a sudden
edge. The wall switch was set just beyond, a far distance from the ground
below. Seeing a long hanging curtain an equal distance beyond gave him an
idea. He took up his courage and ran out, over the switch, onto the
curtain and down, his sword at the ready as before. He fell safe to the
floor and ran quickly to the side and rolled under the now open gate. It
clanged shut behind him.
He was in the open once again. He looked up to leaden skies. Steps led
down to a short bridge. By a circular design at its center he recognized
it as the place he first encountered the Crow Master in his own time. He
needed to keep his bearings. Intent on arriving at the Fortress Entrance
he could not afford to wander aimlessly. An open doorway faced him;
rotating spiked pole traps close within. A glance about showed two
slender columns in the distance to one side, and a colonnade in the
other. Looking up, he observed Raiders on a terrace above it pacing as
sentries. He had no desire for unnecessary exertion. He made his way in
past the fast spinning poles.
Around a corner a similarly spinning spiked log rose and fell in a groove
across his path. He chose his moment to tumble beneath and forward to a
corner. Here, two more poles spun in opposition, at one point meeting
then dividing, leaving sufficient space at that moment to dodge through.
Such slight injury as clumsiness or hesitation had earned was soon mended
in a draft out of a nearby water fountain.
-- THE FORTRESS REBUILT -------------------------------------------------
He ran on into the next passage. Guttural cries could be heard as from
nowhere appeared two tall slender beings, gliding rapidly from side to
side in black swirling clouds, of no greater substance than a mere
silhouette. Should he stand at one place they cast short daggers, one on
another, knocking him back in a multiple assault. Though he blocked with
his sword, should he try to attack in an instant they vanished and
reappeared nearby to assault him afresh.
"I'm here, I'm there, I'm everywhere," one hissed.
They could as easily glide straight through him, knocking him hard to the
ground. To determine his strategy the Prince ran for such cover as he
could find.
"Poor Prince," came an echoing taunt. "Seems you're just out of reach."
He didn't take kindly to having deadly objects thrown at his person.
Choosing a moment when the assault died down, he stepped into view and
hurled his own secondary weapon. It cartwheeled through the air and
caught a direct hit on one ghastly apparition. With a choked gurgle its
head parted from its shoulders. The other redoubled its efforts.
"Just like your own shadow, Prince, you'll never be free of me."
Finding the numbers now more to his liking, the Prince dashed forward to
strike with his sword. He landed a few heavy blows that made their mark
but the hellish creature was swift.
"Don't you know, Prince?" it mocked, "You can't kill a shadow."
A furious hail of blades caught the Prince unawares and he retreated to
the safety of the passage once again. Here was a weapon rack, which he
split with his sword to claim another blade. He hurled this at the second
shadowy foe and as with the other the touch of flying steel proved
enough. It similarly collapsed and disappeared in a puff of foul dust.
The Prince claimed a blade from the trace left behind.
These Silhouettes had been set to guard access to a steep flight of
steps. The Prince fancied them somewhat familiar, and as he looked up he
saw the magnificent fortress, its gates now wide open. Proud banners
fluttered all down either side. He had reached his goal, now accessible.
He was certain the girl in black was already within, and certain too that
she would lead him to her mistress, the Empress of Time. Eagerly he made
his way up, hearing soon angry voices.
"Help me with this." Then another, shouting: "Finish him!"
Raiders swarmed down the steps to repel the invader. He engaged the
frontrunners and heard as he fought the familiar harsh roar of a shadow
creature such as the two he had recently defeated. To his satisfaction,
in its blind rage to assault the Prince with showers of knives, this
apparition was as likely to damage any Raider between. With this
unwitting assistance he soon cleared them all, and in a moment cast a
spare weapon to the direction of the raging Silhouette, slicing it to
extinction at first touch. In triumph he entered the mighty fortress.
Up a flight of steps he encountered a vicious sword trap. A blade sprang
from a rotating drum, swishing at a height and a rate that required a
judicious wall run or a tumble roll beneath to pass safely. At its reach,
a deadly pit of spikes. The Prince jumped expertly to a ledge on the
other side, and up to another, though broken. From this he reached up to
a third, and passed hand over hand along the wall at its extent, dust
crumbling at his fingers. He dropped down upon other ledges to a leap
back to a parallel passage. A lone Raider was made aware of the folly of
standing in his way. This passage housed two more rotating drum blades,
quite easily passed under at a roll or above on the wall close beside. He
looked around the last corner to a vast room beyond.
This was the Central Hall to the fortress of the Island of Time. Light
came from windows set high above, and too from a dozen flickering bowls
of yellow fire suspended from the ceiling on long chains, swaying in the
light breeze about the vast open space. Towering pillars flanked sculpted
niches, a spout of water pouring steadily at the center of each. A large
doorway faced his entrance, and others could be seen set into the walls
either side, albeit with no obvious means of access. Huge blocks of stone
were set round about an irregular central platform, cracked and ruined.
On this paced a number of Raiders.
"Stop the intruder!" A repeated command: "He's the one the Empress wants
dead."
Now very well practiced, the Prince finished them easily and examined the
platform on which he then stood alone. At its center was a shallow
circular niche, a smaller circular depression inside. On two sides of
this were set carved motifs, one a depiction of a gear cog and the other
what might have been the symbol of water. Their significance could not be
guessed. Flanking this decoration, four slender columns rose to the
ceiling high above. These were bound on the floor by a decorative edge
that reached back to a curious device; a small stone sculpture that had
the appearance of a rose. The Prince observed a slot at its crown. Again,
speculation as to its purpose would have been fruitless.
He hopped over a gap to the large doorway. Through bars he saw stairs
protected by traps. He would have to find some way to pass within but the
gates here were as yet firmly shut. After refreshment at a water fountain
beside, he returned to the central platform.
He looked over the edge. Mist rose from the bottomless depths. At one
side an initially promising set of tall column blocks proved too
difficult to climb. A second set at the opposite edge gave easier access.
Turning to the slender columns at the center of the platform, from this
height he jumped easily one to the next to land atop the first set of
tall blocks. At this level he could see a balcony over the door he had
entered. Another doorway led off it. A wall run and leap back brought him
standing before it.
A guard Raider ran silently forward to meet his death. At a corner
inside, spinning spiked poles broke his rhythm only a little across a
series of spike pits. The Prince dropped into the floor at the passage
end. A ladder led him to a waiting Raider, unprepared it seemed for
attack from above. Twin poles ground up and down to a spike pit ahead but
the Prince passed easily over them. Again, the small effort belied the
impossibility of passage that another man might face. A ladder at a drop
presented the minor obstruction of sweeping spiked logs in his path but
he slid down at a carefully judged moment. Though Raiders came now in
pairs he was yet undeterred.
"I have more important matters to attend to," he declared.
Through the following passage, light curls of smoke tumbled from a
hanging bowl overhead to lick about the floor. Partly obscured, the
Prince did not notice rows of small holes set into the stone tiles under
his feet as he stepped forward. Puffs of dust rose, and at a moment steel
blades shot out from each hole. He picked up his feet to run fast in
front, each deadly trap sprung by his tread, yet not swift enough to
catch him as he ran on. He steadied his nerve at a water basin safe
beyond reach of the last row of tiles.
-- CHASING THE GIRL IN BLACK --------------------------------------------
Before him the passage led on, with more telltale spike traps laid across
the floor and a spiked log grinding up and down at the middle. He ran as
surely as before and tumbled beneath, rolling on to a turn in the
passage. Here, groaning back and forth, a whole series of spiked poles,
which at a cautious dash he slipped in between, to arrive at an open
doorway.
In a large room of tall pillars beyond, the girl in black ran off at his
approach. Weapons in hand she stopped in a far doorway, looked back to
the Prince with a raised eyebrow and a mocking smile, then disappeared
through a then firmly shut gate. Very high above it the Prince saw a
hanging lever. The girl's running footsteps receded.
"I'd best find that woman," thought the Prince, walking out on a platform
into the room. "She's probably gone for reinforcements."
Such reinforcements were already at hand. As the Prince stepped forward
unaware, a Raider hid flat behind a nearby pillar. Another crept up onto
the platform edge. The Prince sensed the danger, but was first faced by a
cruel caricature female creature dropping beside him, dressed in crimson
and armed with a slicing ring of sharpened steel. This hellcat danced
acrobatically about the Prince as he turned to fight her away, and
gleefully took first opportunity to fling her legs about his neck as she
dealt him a vicious swipe with her blade.
"Pain is exquisite," she mocked. "I commend you."
The brutal Raiders clubbed him as he stumbled under her attack, and these
were joined in their murderous endeavor by a gliding Silhouette, flinging
its blades in volleys as before. The Prince found it not unhelpful to
place a slow-witted enemy between himself and this assailant, that its
weapons might find other targets. He concentrated on turning to strike
the Blade Dancer where she appeared swiftly beside him. He needed to be
quick to match her direction.
"I'm not here to hurt you," she lied, with a pout. "Can't we talk this
out?"
He had few words to exchange but his blade spoke for him. At length he
gained peace from all.
He ran first along the carpeted platform to the door through which the
girl in black vanished. Firmly shut though with the fortress symbol upon
it. There had to be a corresponding switch somewhere. He looked upwards,
at a network of balconies and high ledges. Perhaps that hanging lever up
there? There seemed no better alternative. To one side of his platform a
low block gave first means of access. Reaching up, he grabbed hold of a
metal bar and set himself on a swing, reaching out to clutch onto a
higher bar. From this he moved hand over hand to face a platform balcony.
A Raider hurried from an alcove, where bars dropped behind, to wait his
arrival. Swinging swiftly across, the Prince removed that small obstacle
with a curt instruction.
"Return from where you came."
The passage off this balcony was indeed barred shut but a thin stone beam
led off to another platform. The Prince balanced out carefully along it.
Ahead waited more Raiders. One urged its confederate to action.
"Let's get this over with quickly."
"A human!" the other agreed. "No match for us."
The Prince was not minded to argue.
Once cleared, he found this platform balcony similarly barred at its
entrance, and made use of more metal bars and a wooden jetty to ascend to
another above it. Though seemingly empty, as the Prince jumped onto this
higher balcony he was joined by a Blade Dancer. The Prince exercised some
little restraint in analyzing her unwelcome advances. She was truly swift
in dealing her attack, which was at least easily blocked. The Prince
found she was even swifter in changing position when he moved to strike
back. Again and again he found himself slashing at air, till he learned
to match her acrobatic leaps with a sudden change of his own, cutting
behind him as soon as he turned, catching her unaware on her landing. Of
no use whatever his own tactic of vaulting a likely opponent, since she
simply blocked and cast him on his back at every attempt. With patience
and timing he soon got the better of her.
With a moment to reflect he looked about. He was now at the very height
of the room and once again a possible exit was barred. There was no other
way on but to hang over the side of the balcony rail to leap off to a
slender arch beam. He grappled onto it, sending dust showering to the
floor far below. Once again he balanced precariously along to face a
matching corner balcony, this being not unexpectedly guarded. At least,
he could see that a Raider waited on it, but was perhaps taken slightly
off guard by the Silhouette that appeared in a flash to assist. Both were
soon given equal dispatch. A hanging red banner gave the only means of
departure off this high balcony, it being as solidly barred as the rest.
He deftly hopped over the edge, to jump back onto the banner and begin
his ingenious descent, though he had to be mindful of a long gap to the
floor on its ending. He leaped off at a point to come safe to a deserted
platform below. As with the others, a slender beam led off it.
On this one a Blade Dancer dropped swiftly to challenge his progress.
Blade drawn, she slid along the beam towards him.
"Poor Prince," she murmured seductively. "Come to me."
He could easily resist the Siren call but he came to her anyway, that he
might deal a lethal blow.
"Ah, you like the pain, don't you? Come closer, Prince," she commanded.
"I want to taste my victory."
As he balanced his way out on the beam, the Blade Dancer sprang lightly
towards him. This was the domain of the gymnastic harlot and he was at a
severe disadvantage. Though he attempted to block, she slashed swiftly
and the Prince fell aside, clutching desperately to the edge of the beam.
The Blade Dancer somersaulted away, enjoying her sport.
"Oh yes, this position suits you," she purred. "Submit!"
He scrambled back up, ready to match her this time. As she sprang forward
he jumped up in an acrobatic move of his own, avoiding her slash, and
came down and slashed back. Catching her off guard he connected and she
sailed off the beam and vanished in a haze of sandy dust. This lesson
could prove useful; he sheathed his blade in satisfaction and moved on.
Balancing to the end of the long beam he ran off to a platform. Another
Blade Dancer appeared.
"Don't you know not to strike a woman?"
Indeed he did, yet these vile caricatures had only the appearance of
feminine form. He struck away. Still the wicked creation poured cruel
innuendo.
"I commend you," she moaned. "There's so much pleasure in pain."
He had heard enough. Turning each time to meet her direction, he dealt on
the vile travesty of a woman a succession of blows. Color drained from
her body, now shrouded in thin trails of sand. On a few more she was
gone. The Prince hurried to reach on a low jetty overhead. Dust fell as
he scrambled on top, then flung himself sideways to another. In a similar
display of acrobatics as before, he jumped sideways off a wall and up to
a third. To one side a last balcony, like the others at opposite corners
very high above the ground. He leaped to it.
A Silhouette materialized, supported by another Blade Dancer. He had the
measure of them both and these were soon gone. Off this balcony was a
rounded arch, with a barred gate, which although partly broken was
solidly in place. Behind it the Prince noted a decorative wooden crate.
An unusual object to be so well protected behind bars of steel so high
above the ground. Standing there for a moment the Prince observed thin
vapor tumbling from above. Looking up he saw an arched entrance in one
wall in the space above, but no means whatever to reach it. He marked the
spot, somehow certain of its significance. He saw close by the hanging
lever he had spotted from the ground, and decided to deal with that
first.
Once more a nimble hop from the balcony rail had him hanging with his
back to a decorative beam. He sprang backwards and clambered up. In a
second another Blade Dancer confronted him. He performed his 'jump up and
slash down' routine and got full marks for execution. He balanced out to
the lever. Standing at the prow of a jetty midway along the beam, he
reached up to activate it. Directly below, the door the girl in black had
taken opened at his weight. Dropping off, he jumped ahead to a very long
hanging curtain and sailed to the ground to stand before the open door.
In triumph he made his way through.
A stone staircase led down to a drop into a murky spike pit. A trap for
the unwary perhaps but of little concern to him. A convenient hanging
banner allowed him to slip down to a point where he leaped off to a stone
jetty. Catching his balance on this he made a short jump to another, and
crossed to a third on the wall opposite. Motes of dust hung in the dank
fetid air. He jumped off a last jetty to a floor of spike tiles, on which
dust stirred as blades readied to sprout. Too late to impede the nimble
Prince. He ran on to take refreshment at a fountain.
-- A DAMSEL IN DISTRESS -------------------------------------------------
Bright lanterns beckoned him up a short staircase through a low doorway
ahead.
On his first steps he saw, high above, a retracting stone platform. Upon
it stood a sinister figure, garbed in black and carrying a sword, staring
down at him as it was carried out of sight. As he considered this, the
Prince heard the clash of steel and sounds of a struggle. He hurried up
the steps. On a raised platform at the center of the room two women
fought hand-to-hand.
It was the girl in black, locked in combat with a beautiful female with
long black hair and green eyes, dressed nearly in red flowing gown
slashed to the thigh, and high boots. She gripped her attacker in a
desperate embrace and looked to the Prince.
"You," her entreaty, "Help me!"
The Prince did not know what to make of the struggle but he still had a
score to settle with the girl in black.
"It is as they say: 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend.'"
As he made his decision the woman in red was thrown off the platform,
tumbling with a cry as she clung to the edge. A black leather boot poised
to grind down on the hand of the helpless woman.
"Leave her alone!" cried the Prince. "You and I have unfinished
business."
The cruel vixen turned with a sneer. Seeing her about to stamp down, the
Prince rushed forward to draw her away.
"You have two choices," she warned him, "Run or die."
The third alternative to hand, the Prince laid in a few strokes then
backed off, too well aware of her lightning response. The she-devil dealt
out towards him her familiar combination of strokes.
"I am not impressed," the Prince responded.
He took his moment again, after her double raised thrust and single
slash, to reply.
"This is just the beginning," she assured him. "Flee while it's still an
option, fool."
Again she spanked her hip with the flat of her blade in a mocking
gesture.
"I have no time for this," he said.
He leapt in at his chosen moment, sending her back in a fury.
"Is this the best you have to offer?" she spat.
They locked as before with blades at each other's throat. Finding her
surprisingly strong, the Prince summoned all his strength to force her
back.
"You call yourself a master swordsman?"
"Dust to dust," he replied. "This is going to hurt you far more than it's
going to hurt me."
Yet he must keep his wits sharp. She had added a dangerous trick to her
repertoire since last they had fought. Once able to block her attack at
his leisure, the Prince now found that should he stand close, the girl
kicked suddenly with the full force of her boot, sending him skating
backwards across the surface of the platform, winded at its edge. He knew
he could not long sustain that much damage.
With her bothersome interruption subdued, the girl turned her attention
back to her female prey. The Prince shook himself together to rush to her
aid, drawing the attacker away yet again. He kept respectful distance
now, ready to flip backwards as the powerful kick came, and was swift to
lunge in as she left herself open.
They locked weapons once more. The Prince could sense he had the
advantage, and threw her off again. Yet she was contemptuous as ever.
"Tell me when you're going to be ready to fight for real."
"I grow tired of this," he responded. "You aren't worth my time."
Again they circled, she clanging and striking her sword to the ground at
his feet, tempting him to a rash move. He held firm, warily watching for
that deadly blow off her boot while blocking her furious two-sword
assault. He jumped over her then, knocking her back.
For the third time they locked. The girl now screamed out in fury.
"You have no place on this island. Do you really think you can defeat
me?"
"You'll have to do better than that," he suggested as he resumed the
attack. "I will not allow you to stand in my way."
Bit by bit he wore her down. On a sudden blow she reeled backwards.
"How?" she panted furiously, "How can this have happened?"
As the savage girl was thrown to the floor he raised his sword high and
them plunged it hard down, driving her clean through. The weapon fell
from her black-gloved hand. He stood for a moment and thought of what he
had done. Her life or his. A cry from the woman still hanging from the
edge brought him to his senses. He hurried to her, grasped her arms and
pulled her to safety. With no word of thanks she stalked off.
"Wait!" he called after her. "Please, I must speak with you."
"What do you want from me?"
"I seek an audience with the Empress."
With a hollow laugh she replied, "The Empress meets with no one. Who do
you think you are?"
"I am the Prince of Persia."
She considered this, arms akimbo. "I see." Then announced, "Today is a
very important day. She cannot be disturbed."
"I don't think you understand how important this is."
From the bloody floor nearby, the mortally wounded girl in black stirred.
"Fool!" she said. "Don't you know?"
The woman in red and the Prince stood transfixed at the painfully forced
words.
"You cannot change your fate."
In a flash of yellow light, the girl collapsed and disappeared. Shielding
his eyes, the Prince turned from the woman now clinging to him.
"'You cannot change your fate'... Was she speaking to me?" he wondered.
"How could she know my mission?"
At that moment a part of the ceiling gave way, creaking and crumbling
from the shock of the energy explosion on the girl in black's demise.
Masonry and dust rained down, blocks crashed to the platform beside them.
As a larger section of the roof collapsed, they moved as one.
"Watch out!" the Prince yelled, flinging the woman aside. She cried out,
masonry falling between them, knocking out the stone steps. Dust cleared.
"Stay there!" the Prince called down. "I will find my way to you."
"No, Prince," she coolly replied. "Leave this place and never return. The
Empress has no love for the world of men. She will kill you if she learns
of your presence."
She walked away, leaving the Prince to consider all that he had seen.
He followed a trail of dried blood up nearby stone steps to a candlelit
rotunda, and noticed upon the floor there a grooved channel leading down
to the platform below. By its color and appearance the groove seemed at
one time to have been filled with blood. He realized with horror that
this entire structure was a Sacrificial Altar to some unknown purpose. Up
here was a sculpted block with a metal bar on it that might serve as a
handle. He gave his weight to the bar and dragged the block backwards
along the groove. A door rumbled behind. He went to investigate.
Down a narrow flight of stone steps he came on a passage. At the far end
he observed two spiked poles grinding back and forth in opposition across
his path. Set into the floor leading up to them, a carpet of hidden spike
traps. Should he align himself with one wall and wait for the nearest
pole to touch the opposite wall, he judged that he could run across at
that very moment. The pole seemed to travel to meet him but moved away as
his dash across the sudden sprouting spikes brought him safely past.
Without pause he slipped past the second pole before it too returned. He
looked now along a similar passage of spike traps. In this, a horizontal
spinning log rolled relentlessly upwards and down almost to the floor. A
turret sword swished just beyond. The Prince began his run as the log
neared the bottom of its travel, his dash close to one wall bringing him
safely beneath and ready to tumble expertly under the sword as it slashed
close over his head. He caught his breath at the safety of a corner. Such
fiendish devices as these had surely been set to guard something very
special, and he was determined to discover what it might be. The next
hazard was a spinning saw blade midway along a spike pit, which the
Prince crossed with a wall run timed as the blade passed near halfway
down. As he landed the Prince executed a roll, passing over another
spiked floor and under a rotating blade. Taking a second pause for breath
in a corner he saw now a large symbol, dimly glowing red on a far wall at
the darkened end of the passage. That surely was his goal, and the
sequence of deadly traps an impossible obstacle to it for all not so
daring or agile as he. Yet still he was not there. A spiked pole moved
towards him over an inevitable carpet of spike tiles. The Prince readied
himself on its approach and followed it over the traps. As these started
to sprout, he tumbled and tumbled, passing under the moving log and a
second one vertically scything behind. He sustained but slight injury in
this.
With a certainty he could not explain, he knew what he had to do. The
Prince carried on his leather breastplate an Amulet (a precious gift),
waiting only sufficient charge from a mysterious force to unlock its
power. He snapped it from its mount and placed it on a recess at the
center of the red glowing device, seemingly made for that purpose. The
configuration of the device changed in mechanical operation. The Prince
retrieved his Amulet, which pulsed in brilliant radiance. As he snapped
it back to his breastplate a fiery ball of energy swept him up, holding
him locked in its grip, his back arched, hands held outstretched, eyes
aglow with intense blue light. He was wracked with a sudden spasm and
dropped to a ring burst of light, at which he became released, unharmed.
----------------------------
YOU GAIN
L I F E U P G R A D E
As the Health bar increases
the Prince becomes stronger
----------------------------
The Prince stood before the symbol, the strange device now glowing dull
red at its core. Wisps of vapor curled about him. He could not comprehend
what had happened but he felt his energies renewed, strength fully
recovered. He prepared himself for the perilous journey back past the
traps in the passage, but as he turned to leave, the legion of deadly
devices behind him became inactive, the logs retracting into the walls,
the sword drums to the floor, and the spike tiles no longer triggered by
the pressure of his feet. Their purpose defeated, these deadly traps no
longer had cause to guard what lay beyond. He returned gratefully along
the now silent passage to the Sacrificial Altar.
The falling masonry had created a platform on one side, which he mounted
to face a wall pillar with thin decorative ledges. Jumping easily to one,
he edged around a squared pillar to see a metal pole protruding from one
wall. He swung easily from this to another wall pillar, with another
ledge, off which he jumped back to the first. With his athletic ability
he seemed always to navigate a sure route beyond any obstacle. Though
broken on top by the recent destruction, the ledge around this pillar
held firm as he edged to another wall pole, a second directly above. An
agile bound off a wall saw him hanging from this, where he made sure to
twist his body to face the direction of a last pillar top, that he might
grasp a firm hold and not spin fatally to thin air.
On this high pillar top he glanced up to see a rope hanging against the
wall just above his head. He reached to grab its end. Using this rope to
set himself swinging as a pendulum he gained enough momentum to release
and run across the wall to grab a stone jetty further along. Dust
crumbled but it held firm. From this he jumped down to find a basin at
which to refresh himself.
-- FATE'S DARK HAND -----------------------------------------------------
He came to the end of a broken walkway. He was still some distance from
the vaulted ceiling, and looked down to the altar far below. He dropped
to a broken stone beam just beneath, and made a bold leap to the matching
part of it, where a flaming lantern on a chain hung under. On one wall
between was set a very large carved symbol, which he had begun to
recognize at intervals everywhere, a motif of triangles carved in a
nearly closed circle. He moved on around column ledges to balance out on
the thin edge of a carved stone animal whose mouth served as a spout to
send water pouring to the depths below, as various spouts did about the
room everywhere. He jumped back to a wall pillar with another thankfully
solid ledge. A wall bar served as an intermediate to another carved
waterspout, and a ledge with a niche in the wall above allowed him to
shimmy to a high balcony.
Over a block plinth against the wall was another rope, which he climbed
fully to turn and face a hanging lever. Jumping to it caused two tall
wooden shutters on the wall nearby to close. He realized they had else
blocked his path. Setting himself at a swing, he returned with a jump to
the hanging rope. He slid down and back to the platform beneath. Looking
to one side he could easily run across the now closed shutters and reach
another stone platform beyond. Here hung another rope, and the Prince
used it to swing this time to a walkway.
Candlelit recesses and a flickering torch in a stand lit a rank of spike
tiles set in one corner. Above these a wall switch. It seemed to serve
little purpose, merely activating the wickedly sharpened spikes beneath,
which thankfully receded on his landing. He made his way into a nearby
chamber and no sooner had the chance to ponder its emptiness than a red-
garbed Blade Dancer swooped down close behind him, followed swiftly by
another and another and another. Taken unawares the Prince barely shook
them back before he was surrounded and at risk of terrible punishment
from their lightning attack. An idea struck him then and he moved quickly
outside and onto the spiked tiles. The stealthy assassins appeared beside
him and gathered close to deal their devil's handiwork as he had
anticipated, and with a brisk run up over the wall switch then every one
was skewered in a flash. He gathered the power of their residual Sand and
with grim satisfaction headed back inside the now silent chamber.
This was an octagonal space, set with pillared alcoves. Glancing up, the
Prince saw the light of a high exit and bars across the width of the room
that might lead to it. Ledges on one wall gave access to these. Swinging
from one to another, he turned about and up to a third. He swung easily
through a section of open wall.
He was in a short featureless platform room, a few pots scattered to one
side as elsewhere through the fortress. He recognized on the floor in
front of him spike trap tiles, and ran quickly forward to a wall and up
to the safety of a ledge. Another above gave height to jump backwards to
a bar, where turning once again he rebounded off the wall to spring up to
another. Turning yet again, he jumped off to a ledge. Creaking and
groaning above his head in its relentless course was a spiked log. The
Prince shuffled to one corner as far as he could go and judged he might
leap to a second ledge at the same height behind him against one wall.
This lay directly under the sweep of the spiked log. He timed exactly his
moment and scrambled to his feet on the ledge, where without hesitation
he jumped backwards and grabbed the narrow ledge just barely as the
spinning log returned. He dropped swiftly beneath it and shuffled to
safety the other side.
Here the passage continued, bright lit and crudely decorated with a
frieze of ancient figures. Around a corner a deep pit, its wall protected
by a familiar buzzing saw blade. He ducked beneath as he ran out to grab
hold of a convenient hanging rope. A second rope on the opposite side of
the pit was easily reached off it. Lowering himself to the very end of
this, the Prince judged that he could work enough distance and momentum
to run off to the end of the spike pit, with the minor consideration of a
second buzzing blade in his path. He ran out on its upward travel and
passed safe beneath.
After this he thought little of traversing the course of four spiked
spinning poles, two of which were at station and two traveled. He slipped
easily between with the slightest pause. Ahead he saw the bright sheen of
water such as he had found at the doorway to a portal chamber when in
pursuit of the girl in black. As he might have hoped, at his entrance
through this the Prince discovered a separate chamber of identical
design. He noticed immediately that glowing liquid did not flow from any
pillar. The floor spiral was dark.
"The portal no longer works!" he realized. "Something is wrong."
He needed to restore the flow of molten sand to the spiral at the center
of the portal, and to do that he had to reset the pillar switches.
He had come to recognize the square tiles with the distinctive symbol as
switches, be they set into the floor or high on a wall as these were. He
knew the means to trigger them and found it less of an effort than an
ordinary man would, yet as the Prince ran up over one switch it flickered
briefly but did not seem to activate. He tried another. This stayed fully
lit and a thin stream of liquid poured into the channel at his feet. He
tried the next. Alas, this merely flickered as the first and now he found
that the previous switch had returned to dark. He reset it and followed
with a different switch. This lit up and the first switch remained
illuminated. It was clear that the four switches had to be set in
sequence, and any deviation would cause the sequence to be reset and need
starting again. A little trial and error found the right order to keep
all four switches lit, and on this he observed a very river of white-hot
sand flow from each column and along grooved channels in the floor to the
spiral out on the platform. He ran to its eye.
Vision blurred. All around the chamber grew darkness and decay, as thick
rooted vegetation gripped pillars and covered walls, which fell instantly
to ruin. The work of years in a few passing seconds.
----------------------------------------------
YOU GAIN
E Y E O F T H E S T O R M
This power slows down time for everything
except you. You gain a speed advantage
for a few seconds
----------------------------------------------
Released from the grip of the Time vortex, the Prince falls to his feet.
The portal chamber is gray and decayed, its decoration withered, roof
open to the night sky. Steam rises from the still flowing sand in the
spiral of the platform, wall switches are still aglow. All else is ruin,
though water yet runs in basins near the portal entrance. He heads to the
door, satisfied that he has returned to his own time.
"Good, I seem to be back in the Present. At least I know how these
portals work."
Through the curtain of water, the passage beyond has been rebuilt in an
unfamiliar configuration. Fresh traps are evidently very much active:
hidden spike tiles and two spinning poles. He passes easily at the right
moment and edges onto a thin wall ledge. He drops down to another and
moves around a narrow passage, drops to a block platform and wall runs to
another. Here he descends ledges to the floor. Rubble lies strewn about,
and through a broken wall he sees a switch on the floor with a familiar
blood red symbol upon it.
It sets open a door at the end of the passage here, yet as he runs to go
through it, the door grinds shut. Try as he may the Prince cannot get
there in time. A thought strikes him. His treasured Amulet has long been
filled with as much sand as it can hold; yet until his visit to the
hidden device off the Sacrificial Altar in this place in the Past, it
held no power. Perhaps his passage through the Time portal has bestowed a
residual effect? He steps on the floor switch once more and indeed, at a
press of a button he summons the Eye of the Storm. Time slows to a crawl
but the Prince moves swift as ever. He races along the passage and dives
under the closing door before the effect wears away.
In the short passage beyond stand two Raiders, unaware of the whirlwind
bearing down on them. They move in slow motion, powerless to defend the
blows raining down on them. As Time reverts its normal course, the pair
are vanished to yellow dust.
"How can this happen?" a dying complaint.
"You should have fled when you had the chance."
The Prince looks down through a hole to the room below. All seems quiet.
He drops down. On a sudden noise he ducks down behind a block. At a
barred wall across the room appears a demonic creature of deepest black,
huge and hideously horned, its eyes holes of burning white light. With a
roar it smashes effortlessly through the wall, blasting the bars and the
blocks they are set in to the floor far below. The beast scans ominously
about the room. Seeing nothing, it departs.
The Prince rises to his feet. What manner of creature is this? The Old
Man spoke of an unstoppable beast, the Dahaka, guardian of the Timeline.
Was that what he had seen? He had best take care but he would not be
swayed from his course. He must find again the woman in red. Through her
he might gain an audience with the Empress of Time.
He runs out on a wall to a stump of branch that has rooted from a crack.
He jumps to a second and from there to a rope that hangs on a wall. He
drops to its end, sets himself on a swing and jumps to a pole from the
wall, on to a branch, then ahead to a stone platform. A jetty off this
gives on to a straight sturdy branch, which he just barely clutches to
drag himself up. Though nearly overbalancing he makes a leap to a pillar
at the center of the room. He clings and shimmies to put his back to a
long decorative banner off a matched pillar facing. He slips easily down
with assistance of his blade, sure to spin off before its end where he
lands on a twisted metal strut.
At floor level the Prince sees a number of Raiders, as yet unaware of his
approach. He jumps to a twisted branch not far over their heads, and a
few careful shuffles and a leap bring him to a platform close by.
"Stop the intruder!" a harsh instruction calls.
Others have tried and others failed, as the Prince knew these must. He
leaps to a lower platform where the Raiders crowd around. As he lays in
with his sword, Blade Dancers drop swiftly to bolster the attack and he
is nearly overwhelmed.
"Destroy him," one cries. "You have no place on this island."
He moves quickly, spreading his attack to the most pressing target but
this is hard combat and no sustenance to hand. He summons once more the
Eye of the Storm. All enemies are slowed to a blur; the Prince moves one
to another and finishes all.
"Taste my blade," he offers.
Yet on a moment two more leaping assassins descend.
"You have two choices," instructs one. "Run or die."
He decides there is a third option and hits the demonic gymnasts hard.
One vanishes to blood and dust, the other circles near. The Prince flings
his smaller weapon to catch the creature off balance then bounds forward
to slash it to silence.
"Pain is exquisite," she moans. "I commend you."
Eager to please, the Prince deals out more. The platform clear, he moves
on.
A block ledge brings him to the foot of a pillar and an apparent halt.
Looking up, he sees a cranny he might grab on to if he can rise up to it.
He prepares for exertion and runs up to gain momentum and jumps back off
the wall. At the instant his feet touch the pillar he jumps back to the
wall, and then back to the pillar, and back to the wall, rising a little
on each jump. He grabs the cranny and hangs, catching his breath. A
backwards leap sees him clinging to the wall a little higher, then he is
off once again, back and forth between pillar and wall like a chimney,
rising to grab hold of a decorative edge on the pillar near its top. He
moves around the pillar, not looking down, and springs off to a long
branch that pokes from the wall. He now faces the hole rent by the
Dahaka. He must face the unknown and follow in its step, there being no
other exit from the room of perilous jumps. A leap to a ledge just
beneath the blasted hole and he is in.
A water basin offers the chance for full refreshment. If that beast is
after him, the Prince will surely need all his abilities. He looks in the
direction taken by the creature but finds only damage and a dead end to
the passage. At the other, a leap over a pit and the Prince is on a
balcony walkway outside.
The ground shakes ominously.
"The Dahaka!" the Prince's first instinct. "It has found me here."
In the passage behind him, the terrifying beast reappears. It advances
with menace.
"Where is he?" its distorted voice seems to demand.
The Prince takes to his heels. He runs along the open walkway, which
crumbles as heavy footsteps pound close behind. Leathery tentacles snake
through the solid stone walls as he passes, and reach ever closer. The
walkway has crumbled ahead but the Prince runs over the gap without
pause. Stone slabs slip to the floor behind as he lands on a last
section, turns to jump out on a pole, and on to another and another and
off through the air. He lands hard on a stone platform, and stumbles
across, looks back to his pursuer. With an angry roar it takes off
towards him, springing as a ball of fury to land hard on top. The Prince
dives at the last moment with a frantic wail, falls headlong through a
small gap to a passage where the Dahaka crashes mightily behind but
cannot reach.
Temporarily safe, the Prince hurries on. Barrels scarcely block his way
through a darkened passage. An open skylight, ceiling overgrown. A flight
of steps and a turn bring a meeting with a lone sentry, watching for an
intruder from outside it seems, not within. The Prince comes quietly
behind and decapitates the worthless creature. He hops down to a balcony
overlooking the rugged rock of the fortress foundations. A daring run out
on a wall and a leap off it bring the Prince to a tall barley-cane fluted
column. He climbs until he can leap off to another balcony. A waterfall
nearby plunges to unseen depths. From the balcony he looks down on the
place where he first met the Crow Master. He is nearing his goal.
Through an arched entrance is a metal walkway, and the Prince surveys a
familiar room at a higher level. He fought Raiders when last he came
through but now it is deserted. He runs off at one side to a hanging red
curtain, and slips down it to the floor. As on his previous visit, the
way forward is to ascend a crumbling pillar and cross a rubble-strewn
walkway for a wall run to a ledge. He negotiates the broken wall by
hanging off it and shimmying under. He drops down to the passage inside.
At this the Dahaka appears in the room he just left. The Prince takes off
at a run again, down the passage to the portal chamber. The Dahaka pounds
in pursuit. Without pause the Prince scampers across the gap in the floor
and on around the corner. With an involuntary wail he throws himself
through the portal doorway as leathery tentacles reach. The Dahaka lets
out an enraged roar and instantly withdraws its tentacles from the touch
of water, and bellows in fury at a standstill beyond.
"What's this?" the Prince realizes. "It cannot cross the water..."
A flowing curtain stream protects this portal doorway, as the other,
across its entirety. The Prince is grateful for some small advantage.
"This is certain to come in handy."
The portal is still active. He runs forward along the glowing rivulet and
steps onto the spiral at the end of the platform. As before he is borne
into the air and suspended as Time becomes distorted. In a flare of
brilliant light the ruined walls and columns return to their former glory
as decay and sinewy vegetation shrink back and disappear.
The Prince landed to ground and found himself once more in a pristine
Past.
-- A HELPING HAND -------------------------------------------------------
He turned to the doorway, thoughts grim.
"I have managed to lose the Dahaka - for now. Best I stay alert, it will
return. It always does."
Magenta drapes of transparent gauze drifted softly, lit by slow swinging
brass lanterns hung from the ceiling. Through the curtain of water the
Prince hastened to his planned rendezvous with the woman in red.
As he hurried down the now brightly lit passage beyond, he heard once
again the twin sliding pole traps activate, and duly slowed to slip
between them. Around a corner the spinning wall blades, as easily passed
over as before. There seemed no enemy Raiders in sight.
He came soon to the room of pillars and balconies. It was a vestibule of
some kind between the outside and the fortress within. As he entered he
came face to face, through bars into a room beyond, with the spectral
masked figure in black that had stared down at him from the retracting
platform above the Sacrificial Altar. It appeared startled at his
appearance, and snatched a weapon to hand. Up close it looked more
sinister yet, its garb nebulous tendrils that seemed to flow about its
body. He held its eye uncertain.
"What kind of beast is this?"
A savage one it seemed, as wordlessly, eyes aglow with an eerie light, it
hurled an axe towards him. He ducked on reflex as the missile spun close
by his shoulder. In an instant the creature made off.
A narrow escape. With no means of pursuit the Prince turned instead to
the slender pillar by the door where he entered, and nimbly scaled it as
before. From the balcony walkway he made his way over to the wall switch,
down the red banner, and through the door, rolling just as it clanged
shut behind.
He was outside, facing the passage to the Fortress Entrance. Pausing
before the passage door and its spinning spike poles, he recalled the
pacing Raider sentries on a terrace nearby. They paced still, and now,
better armed and equipped with the Eye of the Storm, he decided to see
what they made such a show of protecting.
At a low wall to one side he ascended to a grassy ledge, as he had done
to follow the Crow Master in his own time. As then, an upward wall run
was sufficient to spring back to grab the stone canopy of the passage
door beneath. On landing he attracted the attention of the Raiders close
by.
"Alert the others," came a synthetic voice. "He's the one the Empress
wants dead."
A short wall run allowed him to fall slashing on the first opponent.
Others ran to assist. The Prince somersaulted to a short column nearby
and in one fluid move decapitated two at a stroke. The last proved no
wiser.
"I have failed."
Nearby was a short flight of steps. As he made his way up the Prince
noticed to one side a floor switch, partly concealed behind barrels. He
jumped down to take a look. After clearing the obstruction he stepped on
the illuminated switch. From somewhere above came the sound of a door
sliding open. Hurrying up the steps, he was in time to see a slotted
grate low in the wall facing him slide shut. Beside this was a wall
switch. This proved to open not the slot but a main door nearby, yet
curiosity told him he had not finished here. Returning to the switch at
the bottom of the steps, on activation he summoned the Eye of the Storm
to slow Time. With the extra seconds this gave him he was able to run up
the steps to dive through the low opening at the foot of the wall. In a
moment Time flowed again and the slot slid firmly shut. The Prince was
inside.
In the passage ahead a rotating sword blade trap activated. Behind it a
massive stone block struck out at speed from one wall, flat across the
floor to the opposite wall, where it pounded hard and slid slowly back to
pound again. The whole floor appeared to be of spike tiles. These traps
had been set for a purpose and the Prince determined to discover it. He
stood and studied the rate of the pounding wall block. Just as it fired
out he began tumbling forward, over the spike traps and under the blade,
to pass by at a moment it slowly retracted, and safely on as it hammered
back out. He knew that a misjudgment would see him flattened to the wall.
At the next corner he saw the chance to repeat the feat through an
identical hazard with twin pounding blocks, and still a third beyond.
Taking refuge in a corner each time between, at safe radius from the
sword blades stationed there, he took his time and soon stood looking
past a last sword trap at another strange glowing red symbol set into the
wall at the passage end, such as he had seen at the Sacrificial Altar
secret passage before.
He slotted his Amulet into the center of the device, which set puffs of
flame from within as a hidden mechanism triggered. The device glowed
brilliant yellow and then white, and with a blinding flash charged his
Amulet for the second time. The Prince retrieved it and placed it to his
breastplate. Once again he was drawn into the air by a powerful force in
a burst of fire, and suddenly released, strengthened.
----------------------------
YOU GAIN
L I F E U P G R A D E
As the Health bar increases
the Prince becomes stronger
----------------------------
As before when he turned to leave he saw all traps retract, the sword
blades folded back into their drums, pounding blocks flush to the wall,
and spike tiles mercifully inactive. This made easy the return to the
slot entrance, where a simple wall switch allowed a rolled exit.
His curiosity rewarded, the Prince activated the adjacent wall switch and
headed to its raised door. He realized that this was the same place at
which he defeated the Crow Master in his own time. The slide to the floor
down a long thin red curtain in the room beyond was the same. He was back
in the vestibule, this time in company of a number of Raiders.
He was becoming well practiced in inventive means of dispatch. He ran
straight up a wall and performed a graceful back flip, falling with a
slash on a confounded victim as he landed. A short spindle column in the
center of the room was used as on the terrace shortly before to swing
round among three at once, and knock their empty heads clean off at a
stroke.
He made his way up to the balcony walkway, and via the Griffin ledge to
the next. Across the door switch he executed again his descent at the
curtain, which by now was very much tattered. In a moment he was back
down the steps, and across the small bridge at the passage to the
Fortress Entrance. This time he went in through the open doorway, where
the spiked poles in his path presented no major delay. A few dashes and
rolls brought him safely to a basin of water where he took refreshment
before pressing on.
Through a doorway beyond he heard as before the harsh insistent growl of
the Silhouette he had previously encountered there. Now more experienced,
the Prince simply cast his secondary weapon and sliced the apparition
cleanly in two. From the black cloud of its passing he scooped up a blade
to replace the one he had spent. He hurried to combat up the steep flight
of steps to the fortress itself.
He stayed on the steps to limit the direction of the Raiders rushing
attack. He well had the measure of these simple creatures by now.
"I grow tired of this," he said as he hacked the pack down.
"I fall, but more will rise to take my place," groaned their last.
"Avenge me, my brothers."
The Silhouette was as easily cut in two as his fellow, and died choking
blood. The Prince gained access through the Fortress Entrance once again,
and made his way to the Central Hall. This time he noticed the large
doorway opposite was open. The woman in red had already passed through.
Between him and his goal waited a Raider quartet. Combat was brief.
At the far end of the central platform the Prince made a jump out over
the bottomless chasm. Taking pause at the fountain there he prepared to
enter the passage beyond.
On first rounding of a corner he heard traps being activated. Over the
staircase before him two spiked logs, rising and falling, and beyond
these a rotating blade, all taken at a roll. At the next turn a spike
pit, crossed at a run between another pair of spiked logs, rising and
falling in opposition. At the far end of the pit another blade trap, now
almost routine. At the head of the staircase above, a wider spike pit and
two more spiked logs, one at station and a lower one coursing back and
forth along the pit length. Timing his moment the Prince ran out as the
log moved away, and sprang back off the wall to land on a narrow ledge.
He was perilously close to the path of the log on its return, and edged
himself away into the safety of an alcove. He moved cautiously back in
the wake of the log as it moved away again, finding the ledge on which he
stood ended just short of the stationary log. A second ledge starting
here just above allowed safe refuge as the moving log made its return.
This now passing safely by under him, the Prince dropped once more and
hung off the second ledge, shuffling as quickly as he could manage in the
path of the soon returning log. He passed under the stationary one and
moved on, to drop with relief at the far edge of the pit. Two more
rotating drum blades gave little hindrance. Up a final flight of stairs
came a last sword blade trap and once past it the Prince found himself
faced by a heavy shut door. Somebody planned few should see it.
A ladder propped against the wall led nowhere, but on climbing it the
Prince noticed a kind of metal ledge behind him. He jumped backwards and
found this to be a falling lever, which counterbalanced the door at the
end of the passage. It ground slowly upwards as he dropped to the ground,
standing on the cantilever ledge. He jumped down, but as he ran to the
door it began to close, a little too swiftly for him. He returned to
operate the lever again, and this time as it fell he maneuvered himself
to one side nearest the door and hung from the edge. When he was sure the
door had opened to its fullest extent, he dropped off and ran hard for it
as it started to close. Just in time he rolled underneath and it slid
shut. He was relieved to notice a wall lever on this side to reopen the
door in future, perhaps.
He was in a vaulted chamber. A shaft of light struck down from a skylight
high above. At its far end, a stone staircase rose from either side of
the room to curve up to a circular platform. Beneath it stood a curious
device of slender glass. In the light of a ring of flaming torches he
could just make out a figure atop a short ladder beside it. He moved to
approach.
It was the woman in red. She stopped, not pleased and not much surprised
by the intrusion.
"This is a dangerous place. You should not have come back."
"I don't have the luxury, I must see the Empress."
The woman climbed down the ladder. She gave a dismissive sigh.
"Impossible."
She held in her hand a sword with a long, thin, elegantly twisted blade.
The Prince pressed his intention.
"My mission," he said, "it is very urgent. I must see her."
"You don't understand. When the last grain falls from this hourglass the
Empress will create the Sands of Time. No business of yours could be more
important than that."
"I have come to stop the Empress from creating the Sands."
"Then yours is a fool's errand. The creation of the Sands is foretold in
the Timeline." She shook her head ruefully. "It cannot be stopped."
"I just saved your life," he stabbed an accusing finger. "Twice. All I'm
asking for is some information. Tell me where the Sands will be created."
She conceded the obligation, for the good it would do.
"In there," she looked to a heavy door behind thick bands of steel. "But
the room has been sealed. You cannot enter."
"There must be a way."
"Hah! You would have to undo the very fortifications of the castle." She
gestured the obvious. "An impossible task."
"When a man is faced with his own death, he finds the impossible less of
a barrier. Tell me how."
"Very well."
The woman described for him the method to unlock the heavy door.
"The gate is controlled by an elaborate clockwork system located inside
the Mechanical Tower."
This was a formidable structure built into one wing of the fortress.
"Even assuming you can reach the device and activate it, the machine
still needs power. As water passes through the moat, the machine will
receive power. But first you will have to fill the moat from the supply
in the Garden Tower."
This was a structure located in an external part of the fortress complex,
linked to the Mechanical Tower by an aqueduct.
"Activate both towers and the door will open."
He knew what to do but was too well aware that there would be obstacles
and danger and determined opponents at every step.
"You'll need this," said the woman.
She presented her sword with its long twisted blade. He reached for the
handle. They held it between them for a moment.
"It's more than just a weapon. It also serves to activate a system of
bridges which will grant you access to the other towers." She sighed. "It
won't make a difference, though."
"What do you mean?"
"Succeed or fail the outcome is the same. You will not stop the Sands
from being created. What is written in the timeline cannot be changed."
The Prince was undaunted. "Thanks for the advice."
She watched him go, her green eyes impassive.
----------------------------------------------
YOU GAIN
S E R P E N T S W O R D
This very special sword serves as a key
and lets you perform
a more powerful combo.
----------------------------------------------
The Prince turned to attend his mission. He needed to unseal that heavy
door and to do that he must gain access to each tower in turn, whatever
hazards he faced. As he left the Hourglass Chamber he noticed upon the
floor beneath his feet a curious design. Nine interlocking circles formed
a ring around a larger circle, each bearing a slightly differing symbol.
Two were aglow with brilliant white light. He could not determine the
cause.
He lent his weight to the mechanical lever on the wall by the door, which
reopened it, grinding slowly to a close behind him as he rolled
underneath. He made his way back along the corridor of traps, ably
negotiating the ingenious array of lethal devices. A fine test of his
ability to be sure, though for one less agile than he, quite impossible.
-- THE KEY AND THE LOCK -------------------------------------------------
Back in the Central Hall the Prince jumped to the raised floor in the
center. He approached the stone rose beyond the circular motif. This was
the device that would give him access to the two towers. Now armed with
the key to it he plunged the Serpent Sword into a groove in the rose.
Rays of light burst forth and the circular depression in the floor nearby
parted to reveal a short pedestal rising from beneath. It ignited to
flame in a brazier on top. Before he had the chance to investigate,
Raiders appeared through the doorway behind him. His new sword showed
ready appetite.
The flaming pedestal proved to be a capstan. A short handle allowed him
to rotate this, and on so doing the Prince was astonished to see great
columns of stone blocks rising and falling to be set to position from the
depths that surrounded him. Certain combinations of tall blocks formed
bridges from which others might be reached, and through this circumstance
could be seen the method of entry to various doorways about the Central
Hall, previously inaccessible.
He remembered the words of the woman in red: "First you'll have to fill
the moat from the supply in the Garden Tower." Looking again at the
circular motifs at his feet, the Prince understood the meaning of the
water symbol on one. He turned the capstan device so that the handle
pointed to it, and found by so doing that several groups of stone columns
rose up on the other side of the chasm. One set nearby.
He climbed up on a short block that made a platform, to launch a wall run
and jump out towards a block column with a thin ledge. He clung
precariously and edged around to a spot where he was able to clamber up
to another ledge, and with a few short jumps and a little more climbing
he arrived at a doorway. Beyond could be seen a pair of Raiders. They
were not about to congratulate him on his effort.
The Prince made short work of them and hurried down the passage they
guarded. As he brushed aside a slow billowing drape he almost blundered
into a rotating sword trap. The excitement of his progress had nearly
dulled caution, yet he knew he must always take care. He rolled easily
past each of two swords and rounded a corner to find a passage very
brightly lit by daylight from above.
He stepped forward and noticed a pressure pad prominent on the stone
tiles before him. Not wishing another unpleasant surprise, the Prince
moved cautiously around it and looked down to a shallow pit of wooden
planks that led the passage on. It looked safe enough to jump down. He
ran on along the passage, light showing between the planks but the
surface quite sound. Around a corner a solid wooden wall that he could
not climb blocked the way. There was not much else to find.
Returned to the floor switch, the Prince saw no option but to activate
it. In front of him a grille sprang out over the pit. The Prince lost no
time in running out upon it, but within a few strides it began to
retract. He turned back and ran to the safety of the floor switch. The
pit was not deep but he had to get across it to the other end of the
passage. Of course he had at his ready disposal the Eye of the Storm.
Stepping once more on the switch, this time as the metal walkway shot out
the Prince slowed Time so that he ran easily across to where from below
he had been halted by the wooden wall. To his disappointment, he arrived
merely at a stage along the passage, and here now was another drop down
to another pit of wooden planks. He knew what to expect from
investigation, so turned his attention to a wall switch he saw opposite.
Too high to reach from the pit beneath, yet there were two metal bars
short in front that might serve as means to swing to it. He jumped up
from the wall beside him to grab the first bar, handily curved that he
might shimmy to face the second. He set himself at a swing and flew
acrobatically to the second bar, and off that to plant his feet firmly on
the switch. It activated immediately, and as he fell towards the wooden
pit the Prince unleashed the power of the Sand once again to slow Time,
such that he landed on the metal grille unloosed by the switch, and ran
on down the passage without pause. Even with the miracle he had at his
disposal, the last section of grille slid back under his feet as he
barely made it to the end of the passage.
-- THE WATER MAIDEN -----------------------------------------------------
He emerged in bright sunlight at a lush courtyard garden. Neat lawns and
trees surrounded a central pool of stepped stone bridges to a sculpture
of a water-bearing maiden, enclosed in an ivy-strewn pergola. The
impression was delightful.
"So Babylon is not the only place to discover the wonders of hanging
gardens," the Prince marveled. "Ours, however, do not provide sanctuary
to monsters."
His instincts proved correct. A harsh voice called out: "Attack him now!"
In a moment red-hooded guards came hurrying to bar his way. Keepers of
the two towers, these proved better fighters than the mostly mindless
enemies thus far. Determined swordsmen, they were ready to block and
quick to strike, though they seemed perhaps over confident in their
abilities.
"Stand tall, human, and meet your fate," said the first.
"Don't kill him yet," boasted another. "I will deal the final blow."
As he applied sufficient force, the Prince dealt with them well enough in
any case.
"So many against me, yet it is still too easy."
He used the space in the garden to circle and strike each as it came.
These few were no match for his blade.
"Pay attention," he said, "This is what becomes of those who cross me."
"Fall back!" cried one. "Send for reinforcements."
The Prince vaulted over a last wretch and flung him overhead. This
helpless Keeper splashed into the central pool, whereon it vanished in an
instant. As with the Dahaka, it seemed these servants of Sand could not
withstand the simple touch of water. He would bear that in mind.
He made exploration of the small Garden Hall. It was now deserted but for
a few possessed birds, which flapped slowly to attack at his approach but
troubled his sword little. Opposite his entrance, a large solid door,
with red symbol very familiar to him upon it, was firmly shut. Each side
of this a shallow pool at opposite corners to one end of the garden stood
before large niche sculptures. One seemed to have a slender structure
leading towards it, raised off the ground. As he searched for a means up
to it the Prince observed, at four points set into the manicured lawn,
round decorated stone tiles, two either side. Linking them were narrow
covered channels that led back to each pool. Their significance could not
be guessed. To one side near his entrance, the Prince noticed a ladder.
He sprang up from a wall to grab on, and nimbly ascended.
At a platform above waited a familiar but unwelcome figure. The towering
Crow Master had returned to challenge him again. It spoke with glutinous
menace.
"I see there is still much I can teach you. You'll need to try harder if
you hope to best me."
The Prince joined battle using his practiced vault attack, slashing down
as he landed each time. His foe was able to block only half, and in just
a few short strokes it dissipated in squealing flapping chaos of birds in
flight. As before, it reformed on a higher ledge, daring him on. A ladder
to hand, the Prince hurried to repeat his assault.
It took only a hard blow or two for the Crow Master to retreat once more,
and settle on a narrow platform somewhere above the slender structure
that the Prince had noticed from the ground. With the aid of a hanging
length of rope at one side he jumped over to beat the demon off once and
for all.
"It looks like even I cannot escape my fate," came the dying echo of its
mechanical voice.
For his pains, the Prince was grateful to recover from the ground the
mysterious warrior's sword.
He looked out to the niche sculpture a little below him at the corner of
the garden. Birds cawed intermittently and insects hummed in the stifling
air. It seemed he could make out an opening in the very far corner beyond
the sculpture's head, and by a run out on the wall - not too far - made
his way to it across a horizontal bar. Inside was a tall narrow passage,
open to bright sunlight, with its floor far below. The Prince dropped
swiftly down a series of ledges.
Light shafted in at tall windows. A Keeper stood waiting. The sword of
the Crow Master dealt with him easily.
"This is not how it is supposed to end," came its dying hiss.
There could be no other way. The Prince moved on.
At each end of the passage floor was a door, firmly shut. At the far end
a series of ledges matched those he had climbed down, and it was the work
of moments before he drew up at a stone platform with a short groan of
effort. Here stood a water fountain to give some relief. Wind whistled
into the darkened passage as he emerged to the light.
A raised gate gave on to a small terrace garden. The wind blew high about
as he gazed down on an intricate series of platforms, gates, and bridges,
levers and switches scattered between. There also, in his intended path,
an unknown number of enemies.
He hurried out into the open and found at once a capstan lever at the
center of the terrace. Turning this, a nearby gate shot open as the one
behind him closed down. He made his way through and saw along a walkway
ahead a Keeper, seemingly unaware of his approach. A fatal lapse. The
Prince moved on up a short flight of stone steps.
He was in a courtyard garden, lush but poorly tended. On a substantial
squared pillar of stone before him he recognized a cantilever pressure
switch such as he had used to gain access to the Hourglass Chamber.
Beside this a Keeper, joined swiftly by others.
"Stop him before he gets any further! Do not allow him to pass."
"Come on," he retorted. "Let's finish this."
These soldiers were determined but by now predictable. Though they were
strong enough to block many of his straightforward attacks, the Prince
found they could not long stand up to his acrobatic maneuvering. When the
last had vanished to yellow dust, the Prince heard the guttural outbursts
of the ethereal Silhouettes, two or three of which flitted about the
trees and pillars in the garden.
"I'm here, I'm there, I'm everywhere!" one taunted. "Don't you know you
can't kill a shadow?"
Yet even a few blows of his sword were enough to finish them, and there
was no shortage of weapons left lying by the defeated Keepers to use as
projectiles.
Having peace at last the Prince made thorough exploration of the small
garden. These lush garden ledges were fed through an ingenious network of
watercourses. Around a thick tree at the courtyard center were covered
channels leading to drains. Looking up, he observed platforms and
jetties. In one bright sunlit corner he noticed a section of balustrade
appeared missing.
Dropping down here he made his way via ledges to a very small platform,
high above the ground. A wall run brought him to another, beside an open
doorway. Inside, a short passage led to a deep chamber. Water poured from
the garden above through a spout to the depths below. The Prince climbed
down a series of ledges to a platform, and from there a jump from a wall
pole led him to an adjacent platform with more ledges to descend. Not
pausing to admire elaborate decoration on floor tiles beneath him, the
Prince rounded a corner, where he found twin sword blades gliding over a
bed of spiked tile traps. He ran and tumbled to the safety of a corner,
and took the measure of the neighboring hazard, a horizontally traveling
spiked log and a rotating sword drum. That the floor here also was of
spiked tiles added a little to the danger as he ran on behind the log and
rolled forward to another corner. Ahead lay another fiendish pairing of
twin spiked poles and gliding sword blades. He decided to call on the Eye
of the Storm to negotiate the poles, since their rate of travel across
his path seemed somewhat excessive. The next junction he shared with a
rotating sword drum, but there was room tight to one corner to recover
his breath. Still his trial was not complete, and here was a second
horizontal spike log to negotiate at a roll. As he tumbled to safety, the
Prince allowed his relief at sight of the soft glowing red illumination
of the wall symbol at the passage end that signaled his goal.
Once more he approached the mysterious device and touched to it his
Amulet, recovering it fully charged to his breast, and was borne into the
air on a burst of fiery light as before.
----------------------------
YOU GAIN
L I F E U P G R A D E
As the Health bar increases
the Prince becomes stronger
----------------------------
As he turned to make his way back, the traps, as on previous visits to
the secret devices, retracted and became still. In no time he zigzagged
the lengthy but now harmless passage to the sound only of wind, and
negotiated the ledges and the platform between to emerge to the light
once again. He soon made his way back up to the courtyard garden.
His enemies had returned.
"Do as you are told and kill him!"
He ran directly to the square pillar and pulled down on the pressure
lever. A nearby block rose up against a wall. Knowing without seeing that
this would be on a short counterbalance, the Prince slowed Time for
himself that he might run to it, avoiding the Keepers attempting to bar
his way. He climbed up and grabbed a ledge before the block slid to the
ground. As it did so, the enemies in the courtyard garden vanished to
dust.
He jumped backwards to the bough of a tree, which might have been
fashioned for use as a beam. He balanced out on a branch to make a hop
onto a stone jetty and ledge at an ornate sculpted column. An
intermediate wall pole carried him to a matching column at one corner of
the garden. He balanced carefully along the top edge of a trellis, not
daring to look down at the sea very far below on a sheer drop. Another
ledge and jetty faced the top of the squared pillar, which he saw was
arched at its top with a pole projecting from its center point. This
brought him nicely to a higher bough on that same tree at which he began.
He had worked all around the courtyard garden and was now quite high
above. A rope hung down off a wall of the fortress in front. He grabbed
hold and dropped down to give himself as much length as he could to run
out and swing from a wall pole to a cranny on a pillar.
Now he faced a bold leap backwards over the sheer drop to the sea, even
further below. He caught hold of a stone jetty and scrambled to the
relative safety of a platform walkway. Safe but for a waiting figure.
"Unfortunate that you have fallen so easily," came the voice of the Crow
Master.
The Prince was unmoved.
"So it's a fight you want."
He ran to the towering demon and dealt a hard blow, rolling aside before
it could bring its own weapon to bear. It gasped in shock as he vaulted
easily over, striking on landing in his usual style. Though the creature
had undoubted tenacity it showed little resilience and soon scattered to
its demonic flock. Through an open gateway that it seemed eager to
protect the Prince found only empty platforms and a closed gate. This
bore a switch symbol but the matching device was nowhere to be found.
Close by, column ledges gave access to raised platforms overhead.
Here underfoot was a switch that raised up the gate below, and revealed a
capstan lever behind. However, on the instant he left it, the Prince
found the floor switch released the gate down again. He would need some
assistance to keep the floor switch depressed. On an adjacent platform
the Crow Master sought to resume. The Prince leaped over to it and struck
out with his sword. On first contact the being collapsed to its scattered
flock of possessed birds. Overhead where it guarded was a hanging lever,
which (with no reason not to) the Prince swung up to and pulled.
A drawbridge descended where he had stood on the floor switch. It formed
a wooden walkway leading only to a sturdy-looking crate, with surely only
one use. He ran eagerly over and pushed the heavy wooden box the short
distance to the switch. On the platform below, the gate was raised
permanently and he could now gain access to the capstan lever. The Prince
looked out with satisfaction. The towering cliffs all around rose from
the sea, very far below. Out beyond the bay he could see the Raider
pirate ship at anchor. He was reminded of his purpose and made his way
down. The Crow Master waited once more.
"I want to win with honor," it said. "Get back on your feet."
Although skilled with its sword, the many fruitless encounters with the
Prince thus far had not daunted its intent. The creature seemed either
very brave or very stupid. This confrontation was brief.
"It is unfortunate that it must end this way," came the mechanical voice.
With a last flurry of feathers and dust, it disappeared. The Prince
claimed as his own its powerful though sadly not durable sword.
With the platform walkways to himself, the Prince ran on to the newly
exposed capstan. With a short turn of its handle a switch clunked into
operation and a sluice opened beneath his platform. A torrent of water
spilled along a flat channel moat and into the fortress walls below. With
the pressure of water, capstan levers sprang up in the Garden Hall.
Clearly, he should make his way back to find what operation they might
conduct.
The Prince hopped down to splash through the channel of water. At its
end, high above the gardens, he found a crack along one wall that he used
to shuffle round and drop from to a small platform, off which a thin
stone beam gave on to another. Midway along it was a small jetty that the
Prince used to get close to the fortress wall, where he noticed a rope
hanging down. A leap and a drop, and he stood beside the capstan on the
small terrace garden that opened and closed opposite gates. Using this he
returned inside.
-- WATER AND GARDENS ----------------------------------------------------
The Prince made his way once again down into the dank passage, where
another Keeper had replaced the single sentry pacing its lonely path. It
proved no better suited to its task.
"I think I will need help," it whimpered.
A swift climb up the ledges on the far end brought him once more to
overlook the Garden Hall. He dropped off the open doorway and shuffled
around to where a long thin red banner hung beside the giant statue. In
his now customary manner the Prince used his blade to slow descent to the
ground down the convenient cloth.
Other Keepers had been sent to prevent his return through the garden but
he soon finished them with the Crow Master sword. Though somewhat fragile
it had power while it lasted. Soon enough the Prince turned his attention
to the raised capstan handles.
He put his shoulder to the first one until it clunked and appeared set.
He followed the narrow covered channel on the ground to the next capstan
and rotated it similarly. He saw water flow in the channels beneath his
feet, from the central pool of the Water Maiden to one of the giant stone
statues at one end of the Garden Hall. The water spewed from its mouth
into a stone bowl, which lowered under the weight and served thus as a
cantilever to open an adjoining channel, causing water to flow from
spouts at one side of the closed central door. Things were developing
nicely.
At the other side of the Garden another pair of capstans had raised up.
When he had water flowing in its direction by turning one capstan handle,
he hurried to operate the last. The flow of water through the sluice
channels was complete. The second statue became operational. As water
poured from its mouth, the stone tray in the hands of the second statue
began to descend in the manner of the first, and on the other side of the
central doorway between, water flowed. Now counterbalanced, the door shot
open. The Prince ran eagerly to it.
At the end of a short passage within he came to a drop and was
momentarily unsure how to proceed. He looked up and saw, partly obscured
by vegetation, stone ledges, which he soon used to emerge at higher
level. He was scarcely ruffled by a last pair of screeching crows slowly
flapping to peck at him as he went. At the end of a short passage here he
ducked through a curtain of water to enter a new Time portal chamber,
identical to the others. By trial and error as before he soon activated
the four pillar wall switches to release molten Sand to its spiral, and
hurried to it to return to his Present.
----------------------------------------------
YOU GAIN
B R E A T H O F F A T E
This power lets you do a strong ground attack
hurting several enemies simultaneously.
Use this power when the Prince is
surrounded by enemies
----------------------------------------------
He is back in the sullied Present. As he emerges through the curtain of
water the passageway beyond is now overgrown with weeds and darkened by
lichen. Keepers are in evidence.
"Stop him before he gets any further."
The passage of time has not blunted their sarcasm.
"On your knees, dog," sneers one. "Unfortunate that I must dirty my hands
on the likes of you."
"I have more important matters to attend to," advises the Prince. "Throw
down your swords or lose your arms. Run while you still can."
Words unheeded, lessons to be learned.
The passage clear, the means of descent at its end is the same, though
all ledges now are edged in weeds and more difficult to discern. He steps
carefully, not wanting to miss his hold and plunge to unseen depths. More
guards wait his arrival. He drops swiftly behind and slices one and casts
the other to those very depths.
"Fall back! Send for reinforcements," comes a futile command. If they
come at all, they will be too late to assist.
As the Prince rounds the corner another sentry jogs forward. As
reinforcement not worthy of the name.
"Now you will serve the Empress," it dares.
An empty threat, when such as he is to command. The Prince finishes the
vainglorious attacker at a stroke and moves on into the Garden Hall, now
in a pitiful state of ruin.
"It seems like the vegetation has taken its toll on this part of the
tower," he muses. "It is completely overgrown."
He hops over a low wall to the pond, now choked with weeds and collapsed
at one side to a tumbling waterfall. He stoops to take a mouthful of
brackish water. Twisted petrified vegetation has grown up in the passage
ahead, and fallen masonry stops up any access back to the Central Hall.
That was his route in the Past, where the corridor of traps led back to
the Hourglass Chamber, from which he hoped to go through the massive iron
door to the Throne Room.
"The Throne Room is so close, and yet I cannot reach it from here. I'll
have to find another way."
The shallow pond at one corner has collapsed to a chasm, and there seems
no way to ascend to any higher ledges that may have survived the
insidious process of decay. The Prince returns to the entrance to find
another way forward, and sees there a short block, low against one wall.
Looking up, he judges that he can mount a fallen arch, and swiftly does
so.
He progresses at some elevation along stone beams to the pergola top, now
thick with weeds, around the sculpture of the Water Maiden, splashing
merrily as ever shortly beneath him. From this slender footpath, he leaps
to a stone platform. An overconfident Keeper drops down to join him.
"He's no match for me," its last, inappropriate, remark.
To one side is a partly cracked ledge, which the Prince uses to climb up
to a higher platform. More Keepers circle menacingly, and are swiftly
assisted by a new and unusual fighting companion, a near invisible
creature in female form, nimble and gymnastic as a Blade Dancer.
Chameleon-like they blend near invisible with the green vegetation, such
that he has to keep his wits to sense their position as he turns to fight
them away. Still the Keepers maintain their verbal assault.
"How dare you confront me? Filthy human, you will die like all your
kind."
As ever, empty words. The Prince scoops up a weapon left by one of the
Chameleon creatures and tests it on a Keeper. To his alarm he finds it
deals as much damage to himself as his victim, and promptly discards it.
He has many better skills to deal with their like.
With the platform silenced the Prince considers his next move. A slender
stone pillar proves in reach of a wall run, and he makes further progress
by a wall ledge to drop onto a thick branch that has pierced the brick
just underneath. Off this he drops down to the slender structure - which
he now knew to be an aqueduct - leading to the giant niche statue. He
climbs up onto the stone tray in its hands, barely recognizable in its
overgrown state. A slender branch gives means of access to the hole in
the wall through which he had passed in another time.
The means of descent are the same. With careful alignment he drops down
narrow ledges, hung with weeds. The floor has long since collapsed, but
at a certain point he is able to jump backwards to a tree branch, along
which he makes way by a series of careful jumps, through sometimes dense
foliage, to the other end of the passage. A far jump to the wall finds
him on a stone ledge. He makes his way up others above to the slippery
moss strewn passage that leads to the open air. He clears the stifling
taste of rotting vegetation at the water basin to hand there.
He emerges onto the small terrace garden where he once again gazes down
on platforms, walkways and ledges, now thickly overgrown. Even had the
capstans he operated in the Past been yet operational, the walkways had
crumbled from his original route. He must look for other means of access
to his goal.
He has first to subdue a pair of Keepers, joined soon by a Blade Dancer.
With little exertion he sees off the gang of them, and then considers his
path. Dropping down opposite the doorway, he makes his way around
overgrown ledges to a point where he can leap to grab a grassy platform.
He jumps down to a garden area, where he is assaulted again, this time by
a pair of frisky and bothersome Blade Dancers. Still he prevails and now,
climbing up, makes his way to a higher platform.
This is part of a shattered walkway but he judges he might run out upon a
wall to leap backwards and grab hold of a thin ledge further along.
Climbing up here he recognizes the small courtyard garden where he fought
the Silhouettes and their cohorts in the Past. In this Present he becomes
surrounded by Blade Dancers and Chameleons, together much the most
troublesome of his ordinary opponents due to their unpredictable change
of direction and vicious rapid attack. Drawing on the power of his Sand,
the Prince invokes the Eye of the Storm to slow Time around him. He is
thus able to move fairly effortlessly amongst these assassins in female
form, finishing them one by one. When he has peace he looks around and
considers the change in this place since last he was here.
The sluices are all dry and overgrown. The walls are collapsed, the steps
at the garden entrance lead down to a sheer drop. The corner where he
discovered the passage to the secret device has disappeared completely.
The square pillar is not to be found but the tree he climbed up next to
it is now very thick and potentially useful as ever. He mounts a grassy
ledge at one side and springs first to a worn tree trunk then off to a
branch of another tree close by. From that he swings over another branch
to a section of crumbled wall. He steps carefully along to a point where
a long jump brings him to the ledges of a corner column, where once he
ascended to fight the Crow Master. By much arduous shimmying he brings
himself to a ledge with a jetty, and over a branch to a higher platform.
Despite the apparent impossibility that any might find safe route through
such hazards as he faced, the Prince was ever confident of his path. He
found now the fruit of his athletic ability, his goal a high platform
almost within reach. Others had already found their way to this
elevation. At a grassy platform that he reaches from a swing off a
slender branch, a posse of Keepers await.
"Pay attention, there is much that I can teach you," sneers one.
Very well, thinks their willing pupil, if the lesson today is how to die.
The Prince notes a spindle column set in the middle of this platform, and
recalls a lesson of his own that he learned on his ship so very long ago.
He grabs hold of the column and spins round it, slicing his enemies to
pieces at a stroke. When all are vanquished he looks around the empty
space. To one side he spots a stone jetty, at which he arrives on a wall
run. Pulling up here he finds a water basin to recover lost strength.
Close beside he mounts a short wall, atop which he looks back to the
courtyard garden. One of the tree trunks looks within reach.
The Prince leaps out towards the tree, grabs and holds tight. He shuffles
around to repeat the maneuver to a neighboring tree, and still another
after that. On he goes, aligning himself for a careful landing on an
extended branch. Far below he sees an inlet from the sea. The surrounding
fortress looms either side of sheer cliffs. He has no time to admire the
scenery, though he cannot fail to be impressed once again by the
spectacular view. Is that the pirate Raider's ship, he wonders, still
moored beyond the bay but now wrecked? Time deals its own justice.
He moves on to what must be the highest platform, met here by a lone
Blade Dancer. Her friend appears too late to prevent the Prince his
onward run along a wall to a ledge, and in moments he is back inside the
fortress walls.
On a turn of a passage he is about to leap a short gap over a pit, when
he finds that the block ledge he is aiming to land on is in fact a
pounding wall slider. As with others he has seen, it slowly retracts and
then hammers out. The passage is too narrow to negotiate without recourse
to a jump over off it. This difficulty is compounded by the identical
hazard just beyond. The Prince can see that, should he tarry long, one or
other of the blocks might retract to cause him to lose hold, then extend
rapidly to pound him flat against the wall. He has only a second or two
to make use of each. As the first block hammers out, the Prince jumps and
clambers on it, then steps forward and jumps off again, landing on the
smooth upper surface of the second block even as it begins to retract.
With presence of mind he jumps up into the air, such that the block
extends on its next cycle under him, and carries him out into the middle
of the passage, where he leaps once more, forwards this time, to cling
and grapple to his feet safe on the passage floor the other side of the
pit. Here is a basin to recover his nerve.
Outside once more, the way is over yet more sliding blocks. The last pair
had taken him slightly unawares; with better timing he can negotiate
these properly. He stands at a ledge and observes their motion. He judges
that he can stay close to the wall to leap out at first rapid extension,
and jump without pause to the second whilst stationary. This he achieves
easily but is momentarily taken aback when he realizes the distance to
his next station. In an instant he runs out on a wall to grab hold of a
hanging rope, where he continues his run to release, and on the extent of
his trajectory, leaps back off the sheer wall to cling on to a tree.
Catching his breath here among the swaying branches he considers his next
move. A spinning spiked log grinds up and down alongside his perch,
proving but a minor impediment to a carefully timed jump from the tree to
a column, and from that to safe ground. Safe, that is but for the sudden
appearance through an archway of the Crow Master and a Chameleon
companion. After his recent exertions the Prince has no desire for
fruitless combat and he makes his way swiftly past to balance out on a
stone jetty above a bottomless pit.
"The Empress will be pleased with my success," follows a taunt.
The Prince does not rise to such. He leaps for a slender column and
aligns himself with a small platform the other side. A short wall run
brings him to another. He looks up to gray skies. Down is deepest black
where the foundations of the fortress disappear. He returns across the
gap by a second column and another jetty to an open doorway.
Two Chameleons swoop to obstruct him in the small overgrown chamber
within. He wastes little time in fending them off.
"There's so much pleasure in pain," one moans.
Then have some more, he decides, and the pleasure is mine. The Prince
makes his way out to another platform and looks down on his destination.
Signs of ruin are everywhere. Among dense vegetation stand the remains of
stone machinery.
"I've found the right place but at the wrong time," he realizes. "I'll
need to return to the Past if I want to activate this tower."
Waiting, sword at the ready, on a platform high across perilous gaps and
crumbling walls stands the Crow Master, eyes burning. As ever it seems to
anticipate his direction and draws him on. The Prince runs along a wall
to a platform, where he finds a weapon rack to ready himself for the
coming confrontation. A short run back off the wall and he jumps to a
slender column, with a tree trunk behind. He is aware of the need to
align himself very carefully, and shuffles downward a little to spring to
a wall pole and off to the stump of a column further away nearly lost in
the thick overgrowth. He trusts his skill sufficiently that a leap to
grab the shattered remains of a narrow arch is worth the risk of a fall
hundreds of feet to the sea below. With a grunt he lands hard but pulls
up. Off a short platform is a jetty, where he lines up for a jump to a
pole projecting from a decorative column on the ruined structure on which
he stands. The Crow Master faces him beyond.
The Prince lands on a short platform, dust rising at his feet. He draws
his sword, ready for combat. From some distance below a massive black
creature steps out and springs into the air, landing heavily behind the
Prince. The Crow Master brandishes its weapon, then stops short, struck
by the apparition that is the Dahaka. The monstrous arrival puts forth
its leathery tentacles, pierces the startled Crow Master and plucks him
aside. It intends that no other shall deal death on the Prince before it.
The Prince gasps and turns as the hapless form of his intended foe is
whipped through the air and cast upon him. The blow knocks him flying to
an adjoining platform where he falls, winded. The Dahaka casts aside its
distraction and turns attention to the Prince.
Dazed, the Prince regains his feet. To fight at that moment would mean
certain death. He takes to his heels.
A ladder is hard against the wall of the fortress to one side. He runs
out to grab on, slides down with the roar of the Dahaka in his ears. At
the foot of the ladder he leaps off to a pole, and another, and straight
off without time to think or scarce to plan ahead. He knows that a
second's pause will allow the beast to close in, and he will be snatched
up as that other had been moments before. He lands on a walkway leading
back into the fortress, and scrambles up a ledge. The walkway crumbles
before him, and the Prince takes off at a run over the wall and enters
inside. A gap in the passage floor is passed quickly over to a corner
platform, where another wall run has him drop through an archway to the
outside air. Without pause for breath, he hastily lines up for a daring
run out over curved walls to a long ladder, which drops him to a balcony
beneath. The vengeful Dahaka appears through the arched doorway above
him. The Prince runs back across the curved wall to another doorway. Two
barrels block him; with a single blow of his sword he shatters one and
squeezes through. As his fingers clutch to a platform ledge ahead he
hears the other barrel crack behind him. The Dahaka is at his back! The
Prince hauls up and keeps running, incomprehensible threats of the
relentless pursuer thick in his head. A gap directly ahead has him
clinging to a thin edge of the passage beyond. He shuffles quickly to one
side to pull up, and races toward more barrels strung in his way. Any
will do for his sword to splinter and again he runs through, twisting
down the ruined passage ahead. With barely a pause to think of the
consequence of missed footing, the pounding feet of the beast close
behind, the Prince runs over a wide gap on a turn. A rope against the
wall lets him carry his momentum to the far side, where he hears the
Dahaka smash against a wall and rage in fury as its quarry seems close to
escape. Not yet, as he rushes headlong down a short passage that soon
ends in a dead drop. In a blur he spots a ladder fixed to the wall ahead,
and leaps for it, slides swiftly to its foot and drops off, without care
for the fall. He tilts headlong down the passage before him, the heavy
tread and hot breath of his angry pursuer close behind. The Prince sees a
curtain of water at last, a Time portal surely beyond, and tumbles
through.
The Dahaka roars impotently outside.
-----------------------
Activate portal to Past
-----------------------
----------------------------------------------
YOU GAIN
N E W S A N D T A N K
A new sand tank lets you stock more
Sands of Time
----------------------------------------------
Once more in the Past, the Prince sees with satisfaction that all has
been restored to pristine condition. He can return to the garden area
where the Dahaka began its chase, and perhaps find a way to activate the
machinery there. All being well, he should be able to retrace his steps.
Although the Dahaka pursued him only in the Present where he did not
belong, almost at once the Prince encountered other opposition beyond the
curtain of water. Two Keepers waited his arrival.
"He's no match for me," scoffed one. "My abilities could be put to better
use."
"So many choices, so little challenge," said the Prince, wearily. "Which
of you wants to be next?"
It made no difference. In a few moments he sheathed his blade, and
continued to the passage end and ascended the ladders there. As he pulled
himself into the daylight of the platform at the top, the Crow Master
reappeared.
"I did not expect you to fail so quickly."
There was plenty of room to move and the Prince made short work of
dissipating the creature once again. Would it never learn to counter his
vault attack? The Prince saw his way by a rope over to a balcony, where
at a division he hung from one side to swing off two bars high above
ground. This brought him to another balcony in front of a closed door and
an open passage. And two more Keepers.
"Attack him now!"
"Is this the best you have to offer?" said the Prince as he finished them
off.
The door was not to be opened, but along the open passage was another,
more promising. A short ladder gave him height to jump backwards, lending
his weight to a wall pressure switch. The heavy door rose beside, and
fell too slowly to prevent him access. Down steps at the passage end he
came outside, where more Keepers watched for intruders.
"This blister thinks he can stop us?"
He whirled into them, flinging first one then the other off their
battlement to the ground far below. He remembered well this part of the
fortress after his desperate flight from the Dahaka. At this very spot he
had broken the barrel to gain entrance. He looked out to the distance
where an aqueduct sloped from the Garden Waterworks into the castle. His
path lay upwards.
He edged out on ledges and up to a long ladder on a platform. He ascended
to its canopy. Close on one side a rank of saw blades squealed and spun
up and down across his path. He waited until the blade nearest began its
fall and ran out, passing among all three to the safety of a doorway.
Inside, he timed a run beneath more saw blades, leaped back off their
wall and found himself safe beside a water fountain. After this much
exertion he needed a drink.
Climbing up a low wall he emerged through an open gate to the Garden
Waterworks. The gate dropped shut firmly behind. Where he realized on his
last visit the ruined machinery would be no use, now all seemed in good
order. Huge stone spigots towered above, in a particular arrangement that
he could not yet discern. He noticed a central capstan lever that might
give some clue. Before he was able to give this consideration he was
confronted by Keepers, no sooner dealt with than joined by a Chameleon
creature, nearly invisible to him but found by his sword.
The stone mechanics were arranged about a decorative garden, in need of
light weeding but otherwise in quite pleasing trim. There were two spigot
towers on either side of the central capstan he had noticed. A massive
statue of a Water Maiden was set into the wall of the castle itself,
ledges, balconies and columns visible around. The whole looked out on
magnificent views across to the fortress, where below he saw covered
walkways and the aqueduct, as yet bone dry.
As he checked over the central capstan he became aware of more Keepers
prowling on the far side of the garden.
"Stop him before he gets any further," one ordered.
"He's no match for us," was the grave misjudgment of the next.
"I am not impressed," the Prince offered. "Get out of my way."
Perhaps as he might have expected, on their demise not one but two
Chameleons came at him. With a modicum of caution these were repulsed.
Having peace then to apply the task, he turned the capstan handle to see
what mechanism it might operate. One of the four massive spigots ground
slowly around at the rate of his turning of the capstan. A projection on
one side of it pointed in a direction to match his handle. With the
makings of a plan, the Prince judged that it might best be faced to a
tall slender pillar nearby. He ran over to see.
A block at the base of the spigot gave means to climb on top of it, and
he realized now that its decorative shape meant that if faced in any
other direction he would not have been able to mount, had he tried. This
gave him confidence in the soundness of his plan. He balanced out on the
projection and jumped easily to the tall slender pillar.
He hugged tight, ascended as far as he was able, and jumped back to the
castle wall. A cranny allowed him to drop to a convenient nook close
beside. A rope hung down at a wall leading off. Water flowed from a spout
in the wall somewhere under his feet as he ran across, swung off the rope
and landed on a high platform. Here was a second capstan lever. This
rotated the tall spigot nearest to him, and a shorter one down in the
garden below. Once again he gave heed to a long arm projecting from the
tall spigot. While he judged he might easily jump to it from his elevated
position, he looked beyond to see where his course lay. He moved the
capstan handle so that the spigot faced out, towards an ivy-covered stone
arch forming the roof over the walkways beyond. He made his way across,
and on to one of the spigots the other side. A jetty projecting from a
platform gave access to another capstan that mirrored the last. He turned
the final spigot, this time certain that it should best face to the
castle itself. He cleared a weapon rack from his way and made ready to
cross.
Another rope, another nook, another cranny. Another slender pillar.
Presently he was atop the final spigot, looking down on the statue of the
water bearer and facing a mossy hidden platform in the castle walls
ahead. He jumped over and hopped behind a low wall to a lower gap under a
trellis gate.
He had reached his goal. At the center of a small conical chamber was a
capstan on a plinth of mosaic decoration. A single slit window lit the
room and leaves drifted from somewhere above. Looking up the Prince saw
that the chamber was open to the skies. He saw too a doorway.
He soon scrambled up to the doorway and the passage beyond. Green lichen
and weeds on the floor did not conceal spike tile traps, and a spinning
log coursed into action above them on his approach. He paused for the
proper moment to run out, passing under the log to the safety of a
corner. He faced a darker corridor with an increased legion of rolling
spiked logs. Taking up his courage once more, he ran expertly forward and
tumbled beneath, his rate such that it carried him on across the suddenly
springing spiked tiles and each spinning log as it fell. At the darker
end of the passage he saw, up a few stone steps, the dimly lit symbol on
the wall where he might charge his Amulet. He stepped up and placed the
talisman into the recess that seemed made for it. On replacing it to his
body, again the bright light, a flash, and he was gripped by the force
that bore him aglow into the air, and released him with energies
immeasurably enhanced.
----------------------------
YOU GAIN
L I F E U P G R A D E
As the Health bar increases
the Prince becomes stronger
----------------------------
He returned to the capstan in the chamber outside. He turned its handle
as far as it would go. Water poured from a pipe in the wall close in
front, filling the chamber floor around the plinth on which he stood, to
spill out through channels into the garden below. He jumped down and left
the way he had come.
On jumping to the nearest stone spigot outside, he observed that water
now flowed within it, a fine spray rising from a vent at his feet. It
poured from its spout into channels below. He guessed that once oriented
the other spigots would receive the flow in turn.
He needed to return the capstan beside the broken weapon rack to a
position that allowed progress back to the arch walkway. At this point
Keepers hurried below to obstruct him. No matter, the Prince relished
each chance for combat. He moved on, across the next spigot top to the
other platform capstan, now without further use. He was soon back across
the wall with the rope, clambering around the castle walls and the pillar
to the final spigot. Water flowed up and off its extended arm. He climbed
down off it to attend his opposition in the garden.
The door at his exit was still closed. He had a last stage to complete
the flow of water to the fortress. He rotated the central capstan again.
The large and the small spigots turned about, channeling the water
through gullies and spouts to the last spigot towers until it coursed
down to the aqueduct far below. A slow steady torrent that, as the woman
in red had promised provided power to some mechanism deep within the
fortress. Somewhere inside, one of two steel bars retracted on a massive
ornate iron door.
His task now was to find and activate the second tower. He jumped down to
investigate the path taken by the aqueduct, but his way was blocked by an
iron gate. The switch to open it was on the other side. He turned back
the way he had entered these Garden Waterworks.
-- THE SECOND TOWER -----------------------------------------------------
He made short work of the sentries posted at his return through the
garden passage to an outdoor balcony. Though he was wary of invisible
dropping Chameleons, he dealt with all as he saw fit. He turned quickly
to negotiate once more the three fast rising and falling saw blades in
his wall run path. He took his moment on the nearest blade's fall to run
out and on to the long ladder for the platform below. Only a single saw
blade reached down this far and it did not impede him.
He dropped down to a doorway where he reentered the castle. Keepers here
were scarce worth the trouble of slaying and he ran on to a short ladder,
means to reach the pressure lever on the wall behind. Rolling under the
closing door, he made his way along a passage suspiciously quiet. As he
emerged he found the expected guards and soon saw them off.
"Fall back," shouted one, "send for reinforcements."
Too late to save its own skin. "I did not expect this," it groaned.
Still others were waiting on a balcony reached by bars, and the Prince
drew his sword ready. He saw that his exit from the Garden Hall down
below lay over ledges and platforms, and he would need peace to
accomplish this. With a few deft strokes he finished the sentries. The
place they seemed anxious to protect was a central division where he
earlier entered this area. It led back to one portal chamber yet he was
not finished here in the Past. He remembered the way back to the Central
Hall was through the lower passage, and once there he could gain access
to the second tower. He examined a wall bar that seemed to offer a means
to swing across to other balconies at this high level, but was too high
out of reach. Another gap in the balcony rail nearby led at a third
division to a hanging rope and on to a far balcony. Here was a prominent
wall switch and an over-ambitious sentry protecting it. Operation of the
switch caused a block ledge to rise back on the central balcony, and
somehow the Prince knew it would not rise overlong. He summoned the Eye
of the Storm to work quickly back to it.
An upward wall run off its top gave lift to the hanging metal bar before
the block beneath retracted. The Prince had already moved on, hand over
hand, to face a ledge on an opposite wall. He edged around this to an
alcove, and gave thought to a hanging lever between. This dropped a
ladder on an adjacent platform and he jumped back up on the ledges in his
alcove to try to work over to it. Around a thick wall, he looked over to
a mirrored ledge opposite, and could not help looking down to the ground
very far beneath. There were the ledges and platforms he had previously
negotiated - though at a different time to this - and his goal now was a
far platform where, by edging on the last stone ledge, he dropped down to
the ladder he had released into a gap. He slipped swiftly down it.
"I was sure you could do better than that," came a watery mechanical
voice.
The Crow Master still watched his progress and unaccountably waited
further test of his swordsmanship. The Prince had other matters to
attend. He slid down a ladder to the ground. Keepers came hurrying
through the garden to attack, but he tossed them one after another into
the fountain pool. 'Blister' indeed. He made his way into the open door
from the Garden Hall into the passage to the Central Hall where he judged
he might best gain access to the second tower.
This was the brightly sunlit plank passage. In this direction he had no
need of the metal grille, since he could climb out of the plank pit at
the other end each time. Tranquil sounds of birdsong and soft trilling
insects hummed in his head yet he knew danger was never far on this
island. His feet thudded across the boards as he made haste to his
mission, and clambered up. As expected, at a turn of a corner came sword
traps and the old enemy Raiders, easier than ever to dispatch now his
skills had been sharpened.
He arrived back in the Central Access Hall. A familiar figure greeted him
without much enthusiasm.
"Oh, it's you," said the woman in red.
"You seem surprised to see me."
"Surprised only that you insist on prolonging the inevitable."
"Why did you help me?"
"I don't know," she sighed. "I guess half because you remind me of the
Empress. Or who I wish she could be."
"What do you mean?"
"Like you, she knows her own fate. She has seen it in the timeline. But
where you fight it, she has submitted. She accepts it. They say knowledge
is power, but I say it is a poison. Knowing the date and manner of her
own death torments her. The closer it draws, the greater her pain."
"And you wish she would fight her fate, like me?"
"Maybe it would give her something to live for."
"You said that was only half the reason. What's the other half?"
"I have known my whole life that what is written in the Timeline cannot
be changed, yet something inside me wants you to succeed."
"And do you think I will?"
"No. But I admire you for trying."
She handed the Prince her long carved sword.
"Thank you," he responded, then, "Your name, I haven't even asked your
name I've been so..."
"It's Kaileena," she replied, and then almost sadly, "You should go, the
Hourglass is more than half empty. You haven't much time."
The Prince turned away.
----------------------------------------------
YOU GAIN
L I O N S W O R D
This mystical sword lets you store
energy. Use it to unleash
the energy for devastating attacks.
----------------------------------------------
High on the wall opposite his last excursion the Prince could see an open
doorway. He turned to the capstan device and rotated its handle to point
to the small cog motif on the floor at its base. Column blocks ground up
from the misty depths.
He jumped to the water basin at one platform edge. He looked across to
the doorway and judged he might reach a high column top if he first ran
out on a wall and leaped to a low column block at its foot. He had first
to clear with his sword a weapon rack, but did not gather its contents.
Armed with his new Lion Sword he had little need of another. Once atop
the first column he made another fast run out over to ledges close by.
Dust crumbled but he clung on, and then climbed to a height where a leap
backwards brought him to the high set of column blocks. He scrambled up
and found himself facing the open doorway. Not wishing any diversion he
jumped over and hurried inside.
Sword traps sprang into action. Before him was a heavy mechanical wall
pressure lever, to which he lent weight. A gate just beyond the sword
traps clanked open, though as he dropped from the switch it began to
clank shut again. With the ability to slow Time at his disposal the
Prince spent little effort in rolling beneath the swishing blades and on
through the gate. A nimble wall run over a spike pit brought him to a
candlelit dead end. Another mechanical wall lever proved simply to open
the gate he had just arrived through, useful only for his passage back
once his mission had been accomplished. Or such was his hope - he could
not guess what peril lay ahead.
Hearing an insistent squeak of mechanics from above, the Prince observed
a high platform atop a candlelit alcove. He judged he might make his way
upwards by his uncommon chimney ascent. Using facing walls of the alcove
he made the arduous jumps back and forth to grapple onto a stone ledge at
the top. This led onto a passage where could be seen a ladder protected
by buzzing saw blades at its foot, sweeping methodically in opposition
across his path. Still other squealing sounds signified further
mechanical hazards overhead. He judged the moment to dash for the ladder.
Along a passage at the top he first heard and then discovered slow
pounding blocks hammering out from the walls. He made his way with some
caution to a basin of water just beyond.
-- CLOCKWORKS AND GEARS -------------------------------------------------
The Prince descended a flight of steps to a wide wooden balcony, where
waited three unwary Raiders. He swept them aside. The balcony overlooked
an external part of the fortress. He could see thick towers and
battlements. Slender bridges were strung between and the clouds rolled in
the lowering sky above, lit with an eerie orange glow. At one edge of the
balcony was a gap, where the Prince negotiated a series of wood ledges at
the face of a running sluice of water behind a trellis screen. He dropped
down to a narrow edge, where a sluice ran beneath metal grillwork. Beside
it stood a lone Raider sentry.
No sooner had he sent it squealing to oblivion than its fellow hurried to
attack, soon joined by another, slithering down from a wall beyond.
"Let's finish him!"
These were cut down as the first, yet still others came, one on another
to meet their end. The Prince kept only a little caution as he moved to a
wide wooden stage, since now they came from every direction. The endless
number proved little intimidation, since a single stroke or two at most
was enough to finish each, running only toward their death.
"Slaughtered," announced the Prince with grim satisfaction. "Father would
be proud."
This declaration of triumph too soon it seemed. Pounding footsteps came
from an open doorway and a gigantic brutish creature appeared from
behind, a nightmarish towering hulk of squat rocky limbs and bare rounded
head set in a thick collar. It came lumbering out onto the stage and
shook its mighty fists with a roar. A heavy gate closed down behind and
the Prince was alone on the stage with the beast.
Despite its enormous size the Brute was quick to run and strike down as
the Prince took up his courage and moved forward to probe for weakness. A
foot stamped and shook the ground then a meaty hook floored him with a
gasp. Rolling aside, the Prince ran between its legs to stay clear of the
powerful arms. Temporarily searching for its prey the Brute swung its
fists uselessly. The Prince was already at work behind, slashing his
blade at the calves of the monstrous legs, spurts of blood spraying on
each determined blow. The creature roared and turned about on the spot,
stamping hard, but the Prince rolled between its legs once again and kept
up his attack on its rear. Temporarily exhausted, the Brute went down on
one knee. The Prince took this chance to jump onto its leg and up over
its back. The head was sure to be a more taxing target. His sword
hammered down on the thick round dome of its skull with a hollow ring at
each strike, as if the creature were made partly of stone. It reached up
for the pest, thick paws scrabbling to pluck the Prince away. To buy time
he unleashed the Eye of the Storm and kept up his furious assault.
Sparks, debris, and blood flew at each battered blow until, with both
hands raised, he plunged his sword down hard to the neck of the beast and
it shattered to dust with a last fading roar.
He stood alone on the stage. Far below a fast flowing river was fed from
tumbling spouts of water cascading off points about the fortress. Two
Raiders appeared from an open doorway at the far side of the stage to
break his reverie but these were as nothing after his titanic struggle
with the Brute. He soon entered the doorway.
Ahead a short flight of steps led only to a very solid wooden gate, roped
and barred and hung with chains. In alcoves to one side, water splashed
down in steady streams. Through a metal grille the Prince could see
clunking wooden wheels, no doubt powered by the water streams, giving
power to unseen machinery squealing and grinding somewhere close by. On
one wall was a prominent switch. Activation caused a block to grind up
out of the floor nearby. The Prince ran swiftly to clamber on top, then
grabbed a stone ledge just above as the block ground back down beneath
him. He was already on the next floor.
Here was a stone chamber with an arched window through which daylight
streamed. Water ran fast through sluices underfoot. Here too, thankfully,
a fountain basin. Along the floor, sluices ran under grates, fine spray
rising. To one side a gigantic fanned wheel ground fast and relentless
across an open section of the wall. The Prince stepped out on a wooden
jetty facing it and considered.
"I've never seen such a large clockwork mechanism before. It's as if the
entire tower were some tremendous machine. But for what purpose, I
wonder?"
He took his chance to leap forward through a gap in the wheel as it
passed before him. He landed on another jetty and beam, from which he
jumped off to a grated platform. He drew his sword, sensing danger. A
Raider stood close in front of a locked door at one side. Others made
their appearance behind it. With them came a strange creature the like of
which he had never seen, a spiked beast in the form of a hideous mutated
dog. At the behest of one Raider the creature scuttled down from a wall
and threw itself at the solid wooden door. In an instant the demon
exploded, shattering the door and the expendable sentry behind it,
allowing the other Raiders to swarm out. A ghastly circumstance in such
needless sacrifice, the creatures of Sand bent to their purpose like
selfless ants, but this attack at least easily repulsed.
The Prince looked around his platform. There was nothing but a solid
barred door beyond where the Raiders came from, and nowhere nearby that
looked possible to reach with a jump. A Raider brandished a weapon on a
balcony nearby, a switch on the wall behind him no doubt very useful.
Even a jetty off his platform was not of sufficient elevation that he
might reach it directly, and as such appeared useless. He must find
another way. The Prince was drawn to a row of pistons, rising and falling
off brick columns to one side. At the rise of the nearest he leaped out,
clutching on, and being carried first up and then down he turned to the
next nearest and jumped off at a point of elevation. This one was
stationary but he waited at a moment the next rose, and jumped to it to
cling on. This carried him at a height to land on the next, and in this
manner he made his way across the room to a wood section built out from
one wall. The balcony was close beside and its defender at his mercy.
The wall switch moved the wood section further out along the wall. He
wall ran back to it and grabbed hold of a shelf at its base. Hand over
hand he made his way around to its other side, and climbed up. He heard a
low rumbling that indicated to him that the switch he had operated was on
a short timer. He lost no time in jumping off to swing from a bar and
straight off it to land on a platform in one corner, even as the wood
section ground back to position.
On this platform was a capstan. A short turn on its handle saw a brick
column grind and rotate to match. From one side a long bar protruded, and
he faced this to the wall nearest to him. He jumped out to the bar and
took pause to see before him a slowly rotating ring of wooden blocks at
the center of a brick tower. Nothing could be gained by attempting to
jump. A metal bar rose and fell in a housing off the wall just shortly in
front. He waited on its fall and swung to it, being easily borne upwards
and taking this chance to swing off, where he grabbed hold of a rail atop
the brick tower, and hopped over with a short exhalation at this effort.
With no chance even to recover his breath, a devil dog scuttled from a
room nearby, others behind, growling furiously. He had shortly before
seen how these spiked beasts exploded at will. What hellish mind had
created them? He struck out with his sword, noting that each caught
alight after a blow or two, whereon a third triggered an explosion that
might grievously harm him on detonation. He kept moving and was sure to
roll aside on a bounding assault, as they carried by instinct an urge to
attack whilst even in flames.
With all quiet he looked out from his high vantage point. This was the
Mechanical Tower. In front of him, the wooden wheel he had jumped through
rotated swiftly. Above him the wood and metal hands of a giant pendulum
rocked back and forth. Below was the platform and pistons he had
negotiated, and several other balconies and doorways could be seen up
above. Various devices turned and cranked about the room. He could not
discern the manner of operation but was certain there must be a central
switch to direct its purpose to the massive iron door as Kaileena had
promised.
To hand was a hanging lever. This raised the platform below, to a height
flush with his. He jumped down off the lever and over to it. In an
instant he was joined by another pack of exploding Spike Beasts, roaring
and snarling. He ran quickly to the small jetty of the side rail and
scrambled on top. He realized now that this was not so useless as he had
thought, since at this height he could reach over to another jetty off an
enclosed balcony opposite. A lone Raider diligently paced within,
presumably on instruction of alarm for his approach, yet unaccountably
oblivious to his hardly inconspicuous proximity.
He jumped over and landed sure footed, though he had to catch his
balance. He edged to a ledge and climbed up to another, working his way
hand over hand along a narrow slot above. The sentry appeared still
unwitting as the Prince dropped to catch on to an edge and run forward to
deal properly with it for such careless inattention. A ladder to one side
saw him back to the balcony wall, this time balancing along its top edge.
He considered for one moment a walk out on a wooden spar, yet saw his
better path would be back to the wall on a ledge. A drop shimmy shuffle
around an awkward obstruction and he was soon hanging from a metal bar
off one wall. He moved to face on to a slowly rotating wooden divider. He
judged a moment that he might swing to this, grasp on and be carried
about, to jump off the other side. He landed at a corner platform with an
identical capstan to the one he had turned directly underneath.
This lever changed the direction of a wooden block, rotating within the
brick tower further along the wall. He jumped first to a bar and then
waited his moment to jump to the rotating block. He grabbed hold of a
squared section and allowed himself to be carried from one side of the
brick tower to the other, at which he jumped off to another small
platform in an alcove. Here was a floor switch. A section of wooden wall
swung in a half circle to a point that he might jump to it from a nearby
wall. Preventing easy operation of his plan, a Spike Beast waited on the
wall between. Sensing he had little time to waste, the Prince struck out
along the wall and slashed as he ran. The hellish creation plunged to its
doom. The Prince continued with a leap and grabbed hold of the thin
wooden section. It clicked back to its original setting as he
anticipated. On its travel he clambered up and out to its end, in time to
leap to a wooden ledge, and down to safe ground.
Safe but a moment, as vicious Spike Beasts growled and attacked. A few
quick slashes from his blade and they erupted in flames, he taking care
then to roll at a safe distance as each exploded. They had been set to
guard a hanging lever in a room here, at the very summit of the
Mechanical Tower. It needed a wall run upwards to do it, but as the
Prince gave his weight to this the platform at the center of the room
rose up even higher.
He ran out on the platform again and made directly for the rail across
one side as Spike Beasts dropped down around him as before. He edged out
on the wooden jetty at its middle, and where he had jumped through the
sails of the giant wheel at its lowest, here he prepared the same leap at
its height. Landing safe on a short beam the other side, he jumped
sideways to another. Wooden ledges brought him up to a doorway. A blade
trap sprang into action within, putting him at his guard.
Light shafted through plank walls. Beyond the blade trap a wall block
pounded slowly. The Prince realized that he could not simply dash past,
since a pair of spinning spiked logs close behind barred his way. Instead
he climbed quickly on top of the block and ran along the wall above the
logs. The next pounding block he took at a dash. Spinning poles just
beyond were routinely slipped by, and then a flight of wooden stairs gave
a roll under two more. He was temporarily halted at a closed door, yet
saw a switch high on a wall and climbed up on a ledge to set it off. He
dropped quickly and rolled through the now open doorway just as it slid
shut. More wooden stairs led down to a basin at a turn, where he took
grateful sustenance before moving to an open doorway at the bottom. A
Keeper ran off at his approach, to the balcony room beyond.
The Prince gave chase and confronted the coward. It beckoned with its
hand and at once two companions spilled from a low platform behind him.
An ambush! As the trio swarmed around he laid in at a whirl. All were
soon finished. The wall switch they guarded unloosed a wooden block,
rising from the floor against a wall. Too soon it retracted flush with
the floor. He tried the switch again, and this time readied the Eye of
the Storm, slowing Time such that he was able to scramble up the block
and grab hold of a rope, to be left hanging as the effect wore away. He
swung out and dropped off to a wooden walkway.
"Stop him before he gets any further," came a familiar warning. "Do as
you are told and kill him!"
Two Keepers ran across a narrow wooden bridge to confront the intruder.
"He's no match for me."
"Few can match blades with me," the Prince said by way of contradiction.
"Why do you bother?"
They were soon enough cleared. He headed over the bridge, which forked
left and right about a brick cistern streaming water from above. He
splashed to the right and pulled up panting as his eye caught a figure
moving somewhere among the slow grinding machinery high up above this
Mechanical Pit.
It was the sinister creature in black that had attempted his life with
its axe.
"What do you want from me?" he cried out to it.
No answer. The apparition stared down at him for a moment then made off,
springing from its high wooden walkway to a room somewhere beyond. The
Prince faced more immediate danger.
"Do not allow him to pass," came a call as more Keepers made themselves
known. "Assist me!"
He readied his sword and looked across a wall to a platform where the
enemy waited. Between them, a large waterwheel creaked and groaned as it
spun slowly from the wall. Its spokes passed at intervals and he judged
the right moment to begin his run as the first appearance of one out of
the wall. This had him passing through the center before the next spoke
appeared to knock him to his death. The Keepers did little to hinder him
clanking across their wooden platform to its end. Here was another
slender waterwheel, through which he might repeat his daring wall run,
but for the fact that it moved at a much swifter rate. He slowed Time
once more. This had the benefit of allowing him not only to run through,
but also to judge the correct moment to leap out off the wall to a
slender column. This he did just as he touched on its shadow.
He turned to face another column, and in his usual confident manner
progressed off this to another and a fourth. From this last he came to an
alcove, dimly lit, upon which stood a lighted capstan and a few scattered
barrels. The barrels alas were all empty but the capstan set moving a
metal elevator platform, which he caught at the foot of its travel to be
raised up on its return. This seemed to lead him nowhere, but looking up
he realized that here was the high walkway on which he had last seen the
sinister creature in black. He executed a nimble wall run to perform a
swift chimney ascent. He grabbed hold of the edge of a wooden walkway
opposite an open room.
He ran to investigate the length of the walkway and was confronted by a
soon exploding Spike Beast. He found there a hanging lever, which he was
certain he had seen the strange masked creature put to operation. For
what purpose he could not guess, but he ran in its tracks back to the
open room where it made its escape. He would find it and face it, or die
trying.
As he burst into the room it seemed so, for there was no sign of the
apparition, but the stone giant Brute smashed through a door to make its
reappearance. He saw no escape and stood ready. It was a seemingly
hopeless mismatch but he had faced it before and discovered that its
apparent strength was as much its weakness, and used its awesome size
against it. He rolled between its legs and slashed behind, repeating the
tactic as the lumbering beast turned at a jump and crashed down. He
rolled between its thick legs again and resumed his assault on the
unprotected haunches. Once it was grounded, the Prince unleashed the
power to slow Time, ran up on its back, and a dozen or fewer blows to its
head consigned the Brute to dust.
The Prince stood victorious at a large open fireplace, cheerily but
incongruously alight. Stairs to the back of the room led to a wide pit he
could not cross. An open door at one side of the room however gave onto a
balcony, where he saw ahead a Spike Beast squat on the wall to obstruct
him. He set out at a run, slashing effortlessly as he passed, to a rope,
off which he ran on and jumped to a steady flowing watercourse. He took a
little refreshment and considered his next move. The watercourse was set
about a large central pillar, the cistern he had traversed from the
bridge somewhere below. Wooden paddles swept through this at intervals,
harnessing the power of the water to drive machinery within. He needed to
negotiate these, and hopped over a low rail to splash through the shallow
water. As each paddle approached he rolled under, first at one side then
the other, in a zigzag pattern to suit their offset configuration. Around
halfway he diverted, hopping another rail to a dry walkway leading off.
At its end was a hanging lever. Operation opened a door on a platform
close at one side. Keepers waited there.
He dropped down off the lever and hurried back to the watercourse and
under a few more paddles to safety. A swing off a wall bar to another saw
him fly through the air to the platform ahead. He set about the Keepers
emerging from the newly opened doorway.
Close inside came the first of what he somehow expected were an array of
traps for the unwary. He ran fast across soon sprouting tile traps topped
off with a sprung spinning pole. After the safety of a corner he ran
across more hidden spike tiles, and a spinning wall blade scarcely halted
his run along the wall over a deep spike pit, where a rope helped him
continue over a second blade to its end. A spiked pole at the next corner
came with a block wall pounder close behind, and a second spiked log
behind that if he should miss his timing at a run. He approached a second
wall pounder a little further on with some caution. On its own not too
much of a problem, the setting of a stationary horizontal spinning pole
close behind necessitated not simply a dash but a wall run over it at a
moment to suit. He took care not to overrun, as a third pole and wall
pounder were in evidence just past. This one at least required but a
simple dash, to find what he hoped was the last obstacle: twin spiked
logs rising in opposition above a spike pit. Simple.
He fell with relief through a curtain of water that surely brought him to
a portal chamber. This was not yet active, but the work of a few moments
brought its reward.
--------------------------
Activate portal to Present
--------------------------
Brilliant liquid flowed to the spiral device set into the stone floor.
The Prince stepped forward to return to the Present.
----------------------------------------------
YOU GAIN
R A V A G E S O F T I M E
This power lets you attack and quickly finish
a fight with enemies.
----------------------------------------------
The Prince looks out at the ruins of the portal chamber, now open to the
skies. A full moon shines beyond its crumbling arches. From the white-hot
molten sand, steam rises in the chill night air. He turns to attend his
mission. Somehow he must negotiate a path through the Mechanical Pit.
He makes his way back past spinning traps and wall pounders -
surprisingly still active though partially failed. He remembers to set
himself a wall run past the stationary spinning log, and allows a long
run up to achieve it. (Were one pole not stuck fast, there would hardly
be room). He finds the last trap of saw blade and pit less easily
negotiated in this direction. It requires a jump back off the rope to a
ledge, and the Prince shuffles carefully to one end and drops down to
clear an obstruction before he can climb out. The spike tiles likewise
are still very much active, though to his advantage the final spiked log
now moves with arthritic pace. He emerges on the platform overlooking the
Mechanical Pit.
This is in a sad state of repair, though evidently still active to a
degree. His path lies back across the slow revolving wheels and gears
around the walls, and along poles and platforms to an arched doorway on
the far side of the room. Two Keepers wait on his platform here in the
Present as in the Past but give now as then no effective resistance. The
moment he clears them the Prince is menaced by Spike Beasts, as ever a
demonic concoction of spikes, fangs, claws, and explosive. He runs to
hang over the platform edge, where a hanging curtain gives an easy
escape.
He falls to a rickety wooden platform. At one side a wheel cranks now
very slowly, much easier traversed than before to the row of thin
columns. He sees that vegetation has broken through gaps in the walls;
the very columns he clings to are broken. From the alcove at their end,
its flaming capstan now extinguished, he observes the elevator platform
is still dependable. He repeats his chimney ascent.
"Don't you know, Prince," comes a familiar but unwelcome voice, "You
can't kill a shadow."
Sure enough, a Silhouette occupies the fireplace room, in company of a
trio of Keepers. The Prince keeps these pinned down between he and the
shadow creature, once more taking satisfaction as they receive hits off
its wildly flung daggers. Soon enough all in the room are as yellow dust.
He moves to his previous exit, yet finds it solidly boarded up. At once
Spike Beasts drop around the room and close in. He hatches a plan. As one
comes at him he strikes, sending it smoldering to the corner by the door.
He knocks over another for good measure. As is his hope, the resultant
explosion blows the patched door clean apart, and the Prince hastens
through.
The rope on the wall is still there and he runs effortlessly across to
drink deep at the same pool of water. The watercourse is now shattered
and is fed only from a spout up above, pouring uselessly to the floor far
below. The paddles are broken. He ducks under a stilled blade and hops
over a gap in the watercourse. He can no longer continue around but jumps
to where the hanging lever had been. A Keeper here is sent flying to the
watery depths of the pit. The Prince drops down ledges to confront
another hopeless sentry, and yet another across a now broken bridge. He
must take the left fork this time. A hop through a waterfall brings him
to a doorway where he hears the guttural shout of a Silhouette. A cast
weapon takes care of that. In evidence here are certain wall traps,
fallen to disuse, but at a turn in the passage beyond there are spinning
log traps to negotiate. A few simple rolls down a staircase and he stands
on a floor pressure switch to open a door.
A cylindrical chamber houses a creakily rotating wooden contraption at
its center. It also house Spike Beasts and Keepers.
"Stand tall, human," one orders, "and meet your fate."
Faced with so many in such a confined space, the Prince unleashes his
latest power. The Ravages of Time sweep the chamber. Darkness falls in a
second as fiery rings of orange light burst around the feet of the
Prince. He whirls in a furious red haze from one enemy to the next,
whipping his sword in a dazzling flurry of blows, wiping each confounded
enemy to dust before the effect wears off, as quickly as it arrived. A
useful resource indeed.
He looks around. The door has shut firmly behind him and no pressure
switch this side. A short ladder leads only to the planks of the
revolving contraption that serve as the ceiling to the chamber. Machinery
creaks and groans as the wooden trunk slowly revolves. Clouds of
billowing condensation emit from vents in the brick wall at the chamber
height but there is no apparent exit. Then he notices a hole through the
revolving ceiling and scales the ladder to see. As the hole passes
overhead he leaps back, and climbs up through it.
Standing on what is now the revolving floor, he is carried about the
chamber. At one side he sees a ledge, and jumps up to it. On the trunk of
the wooden cylinder rotating at the room center can be seen a short
ledge, and he makes a leap back to grab hold of it. Now turning with the
trunk he jumps off once again to a higher ledge at the opposite side,
then back once more to a ledge higher still on the trunk. Clambering
round, the Prince comes eventually below a hole in the ceiling of this
level too, where he is able to stand and jump back to climb up to another
room.
By the same method he ascends the revolving trunk once again until he
stands on its highest ledge. He passes a pressure switch on the wall.
Judging his moment, he leaps backwards onto it, and then springs
immediately back to his ledge on the trunk. A door has opened for the
shortest of moments, and as he is carried around the room he sees his
chance to leap off and dive through it. A water fountain waits as his
reward.
At the top of stone steps he hops over a low wall. In a chamber beyond
three Keepers lie in wait. There does not appear to be any exit, merely a
blocked door. Yet as he searches, the Prince is attacked by the guards.
He makes use of a column at the center of the chamber to whirl and slice
the heads off each as punishment for such temerity. Growling Spike Beasts
descend to wreak vengeance, and here he sees the chance to repeat his
trick of the fireplace room. He lures one to the door and triggers the
necessary explosion, with quite the desired result. He jumps through the
fresh blasted hole.
He looks down from a fragment of platform block above a large room.
Broken walkways and inactive mechanical parts are all around. Water
spills down to the flooded floor. Devastation is everywhere; the
mechanism housed here cannot possibly work.
"This machine..." the Prince ponders. "It must activate the Mechanical
Tower. I need to find a portal and hope that whatever disaster befell
this place has not yet come to pass."
He climbs a nearby wall as a chimney and hauls up on a platform. An
assortment of enemies crowd around a huge stone column. He clears them
and jumps up at a low wall to turn and mount the column block. He looks
about and spots that vegetation has broken through one wall and left
several wooden spars that can serve as ledges. He jumps over and scales
them, clambers up on a short triangular ledge. He runs off to one side to
another, and sees here a short ladder in reach off a wall run. He grabs
to it and ascends.
A small chamber leads to a platform. A waiting Keeper and his Blade
Dancer companion fall to the Prince's sword. Seeing no clearer way ahead,
he smashes loose barrels from his way and drops over a railing. A cranny
lets him make way to a broken platform, where Blade Dancers descend. He
sees no advantage in prolonged trivial combat and drops quickly down a
ladder to one side.
As bad luck would have it, about the only functional machine part in the
room is a lever wheel that rocks in his path to a projecting beam. He
swings around the end of his ladder to face onto it then times his leap.
He lands safe and jumps off to a passage through a broken wall.
It seems some traps are still active as a pair of saw blades spin busily
up and down in his path. He slows Time to race over the blades and on to
a hanging rope. He uses this to continue his run and jumps back off the
wall to a ledge. He climbs up to look down on a cylindrical area with
trouble waiting below.
He runs first to a narrow triangular ledge and slips down a ladder to the
unwelcome reception committee. With Time powers at his disposal, even
with a second wave as the first is diminished, combat is brief. The
Prince climbs a ledge at one side to look out across the Activation Room.
There is a platform at center with a broken bridge to it. Weighted ropes
hang uselessly from remnants of overgrown platforms. Water pours down
everywhere. Far on the other side of the room the Prince can see the
facing platform to this, with its huge column block where he first
ascended this room. He turns away, dispirited. Above him on his walkway
ledge is a long cranny in the brickwork, which he uses to shimmy into an
alcove. Thick tree trunks and branches have forced the walls here. He
jumps to an opposite cranny, and drops to yet another, finally able to
reach another platform and drop down.
His progress is such that he might think himself invincible, yet as he
turns a corner there is a loud thump from behind him as across the room a
hulking agile figure drops to the central platform. The Dahaka lurks
always here in the Present, and its leap to where the Prince stands makes
its prey fearfully obvious.
The Prince flees headlong. A chasm ahead he passes at a wall run, and
around a corner soon after another. This has a hanging rope that the
Prince uses quickly to fall onto a far platform. To hand is a curtain of
water and he tumbles gratefully under. Through a process he could never
explain the Prince understands the thwarted creature's distorted roar.
"You are quick, mortal," the Dahaka allows, yet warns, "You cannot escape
your fate."
Try he must. The Prince springs up to a wall pressure switch and a metal
grilled wall slides out behind him. With great presence of mind he jumps
back and forth in a chimney ascent and catches hold of a ledge to a
passage above before the grille wall retracts. Keepers and Spike Beasts
met here are as meat and drink to him after his recent travails.
Yet as he makes a short leap on, the Dahaka waiting below sees its chance
to resume the chase. It springs up to touching distance, tentacles
reaching through the very stones of the passage underfoot as the Prince
makes a wall run ahead, and another with a rope on the opposite wall at a
corner. He tumbles through a curtain of water as the thwarted Dahaka
roars at his back.
He has found the portal chamber in this part of the fortress.
-----------------------
Activate portal to Past
-----------------------
He runs over each of the four tiles on pillars. Sand pours to a stream.
He can only hope that this will bring him to the Activation Room in the
Past. But would he find it working?
----------------------------------------------
YOU GAIN
N E W S A N D T A N K
A new sand tank lets you stock more
Sands of Time
----------------------------------------------
The Prince found his abilities enhanced, and he would surely need every
advantage to meet the challenge ahead. Leaving the portal chamber here in
the Past he found the bare passage in which the Dahaka pursued him now
lodged with traps: spinning logs, sword blades, wall saws and spike pits,
all wearily familiar.
At a corner he was beset by exploding Spike Beasts, and rolled hurriedly
through a small gap at the foot of a large mechanical cog. Keepers waited
across a short gap.
"Do as you are told," growled a frustrated voice, "and kill him."
The Prince needed no such command, yet death came to his blade. Beyond
this ineffectual pair the passage led to an edge too steep for a
straightforward drop down. At this place he had moved the wall section to
perform a chimney ascent when chased by the Dahaka. It might work as well
as a descent. He hung off and jumped backwards to a wall, and began a
slow methodical back-and-forth jumping motion to the ground.
"Attack him now!"
Trouble waited through a sheet of water at a corner of the gloomy
passage. The Prince edged forwards and made out the form of two Keepers
in company of an exploding pet, rumbling aggressively. He lagged behind
the sheet of water, and as one enemy came at him it vanished with a
shriek as it first touched the flow. The Dahaka was not alone in being
unable to cross water. Even the Spike Beast detonated at brushing the
seemingly harmless barrier, and the Prince was unashamed in saving his
energies thus.
On the other side, the water poured to a sluice under a metal grille,
cascading in a fine spray to a spike pit below. The Prince ran out over
this with the aid of a rope, remembering well how he had been forced to
flee in the opposite direction by the towering beast that pursued him
relentlessly in his Present. He would meet it one day and stand his
ground.
On his landing he noticed a rusted row of spike tiles lining each edge of
the passage ahead. Two Keepers waited ready to challenge him. He could
not fail to see a floor pressure switch close by, which proved to spring
a deadly surprise on the hapless victims upon them. The Prince moved on
over a short gap where he saw before him the platform overlooking the
Activation Room.
"Excellent. It seems to be in much better condition this time around. Now
how do I get it working?"
Of more pressing concern, on an opposite platform four-square stood the
Brute, though out of reach tossing in his enemy's direction exploding
Spike Beasts from a ready supply out of a pen at his side.
To add to his troubles, the Prince was beset by Keepers hurrying to
attack. He backed off to a corner, one ear to the roar of the Brute as it
hurled another missile. This seemed as likely to do damage to the Keepers
as to him, and he rolled away in good time. One beast was cast into a
corner, where it exploded against a cracked wall. A suddenly opened hole
revealed a secret passage hidden behind. The Prince ran to investigate.
On his first hasty steps a wall block came pounding out in front. He gave
pause, noting another close behind, and darted past to the safety of a
corner, where bright daylight split cracked planks at an arch and shafted
through boarded windows along the passage beside. The floor here was a
carpet of spike tiles, and rolling logs scythed above. Taking stock of
these, the Prince judged that he might roll at a dash and take but slight
injury if a savage blade brushed him at speed. He always reserved the
option of the Eye of the Storm that he might minimize such obstacles, but
his acrobatic athleticism was enough to carry him past impossible
obstacles on which lesser men might founder. On the next turn a wall
pounder rammed hard at intervals with a spiked log rotating in station
behind, such that it stymied a straightforward run past. Instead, he
chose his moment and mounted the pounding wall block, ran forward off it
and over the log, to drop ready to run past a second wall pounder. Though
pleased at his alacrity, the Prince was more circumspect at the next turn
of the passage. Two more wall pounders, safely overhead, but twin
lacerating poles at their end barred completely any chance to run by. The
elements of a solution came to him, and he faced to a wall, his back to
the hazards. On a moment when the nearest block smashed out from its
wall, he ran up and sprang backwards to it, landing on top. He scrambled
to his feet and ran on to jump straight to the next, on a slower cycle of
destructive motion yet sliding away even as he touched onto it. A quick
forward leap and he sailed over the barrier of logs and fell safe.
Looking up he saw, as hoped, the faint glowing light of a mystical symbol
at the passage end.
----------------------------
YOU GAIN
L I F E U P G R A D E
As the Health bar increases
the Prince becomes stronger
----------------------------
Thin rays lightened the now silent passage as he returned to the
Activation Room, where the Brute still hurled explosive creatures in his
direction. The Prince had the inkling of how best to proceed, and made
his way to the opposite side of his platform. He stood in front of what
he now recognized as a boarded up door in the corner and waited for the
Brute to throw another living ball of fire at him. He moved aside at the
last moment, and a hole was duly blown through. In a small space the
other side, a wall pressure lever was easily drawn down, at which a metal
platform clanked into place close by in the main room.
The platform was set within reach of a wall run, with the slight
inconvenience of passing through the spokes of a slow moving wooden wheel
turning from the wall. Though the Brute continued to cast in his
direction exploding Spike Beasts, the Prince lost little time in
clambering up off the metal platform to a walkway ledge. Close beneath
was an alcove, above which was suspended a large stone block. Keepers
waited around.
The Prince dropped swiftly to clear the enemy from his way, and was if
anything assisted by the occasional live missile that was flung to the
alcove by the Brute from its position across the room. The Prince cleared
a few loose pots from the foot of a ladder at the back wall of the alcove
and scrambled up. From the top he managed to jump off to hold on to the
edge of the large stone block, suspended from a rope and pulley. He
shuffled to a side away from the open edge of the alcove, since the Brute
showed no loss of enthusiasm for hurling explosive minions. The Prince
was temporarily stumped, for although he could well see a high ledge that
he might use to effect progress away from this area, it was clearly too
high out of reach. All at once a missile struck the far side of his
refuge, which explosion fractured the stone block and released a heavy
weight at its base. The remainder rose on its pulley, and by the
fortuitous assistance of the Brute the Prince found it now possible to
spring backwards to the high ledge. This was a narrow triangular nook,
which seemed familiar to him from his progress through this room in his
Present. Certain now of his path the Prince ran off at one side to an
identical ledge, and from there to a section of ladder that led as before
up into a small room, which with a certain relief he found to be empty.
The room looked much as he remembered. A capstan was now centered on the
wooden platform atop the short staircase. A lightly flaming brazier on
top cast spidery shadows to the floor. He rotated its extended handle
fully. Out in the Activation Room a large wooden cog slid out from one
wall. A metal platform clanked down to lock in place above it. The Prince
moved to the edge of his platform, and cleared loose pots and barrels
from his way. He could see the metal platform just ahead but to get to it
he had to time his wall run out over a metal shutter that clanked
steadily up and down across his path. On the right moment he ran out over
this and landed safely on the platform before the shutter rose again. The
other side of the metal platform was found the same obstacle, as easily
traversed. He cut through a faint cloud of steam from a wall vent on his
way to landing on a narrow ledge, curving round what seemed to be a
turret built into one corner. He followed its extent.
Beneath him wooden cogs rotated in opposition. By yet more careful timing
he dropped first to cling onto one, and as it carried him around the
turret dropped lightly to the next, which carried him back round to drop
off to a convenient pole just beneath. He turned and swung off to another
pole, then another and another and another, one to the next in a fluid
movement. Mere child's play. He landed on a short platform to one side of
an identical recessed area to that he had recently left, with its
weighted block contraption at center. It had too an identical set of
waiting demons.
"On your knees, dog," one commanded.
Never. He knew what he had to do, and cleared the space before finding a
ladder to the block. As before, the Brute obliged him by tossing a live
bomb to his direction. The massive stone broke apart and as the weight
fell the top section rose on its pulley as hoped. The Prince shuffled
about the edge to align with the lowest triangular niche, jumped back and
pulled up. The Brute could do little to harm him up here but continued
his angry roar nevertheless.
A now practiced wall run to another niche and a run out to a ladder
brought him up through an open trapdoor to another small chamber, this
too unoccupied, and another capstan close by. It moved a second huge
wooden cog out from a wall in the Activation Room. At this, Spike Beasts
dropped to menace him in the confined chamber space. He ran out over a
sliding plate to a metal platform over the second cog, and moved on
across an identical sliding plate to a recess containing a third capstan.
This released a third cog to the center of the room. All the cogs now
interlocked.
He had worked his way right around the room at its uppermost level. He
ran out to a planked metal platform extending to the middle. At one end
an open window beckoned. He dropped through and drew his sword. On a
platform to one side paced a sentry, seemingly oblivious to the Prince's
entrance. He jumped to surprise the Keeper and finish it, and then
descended the ladder being so ineffectually guarded. On dismounting to a
short platform, his first instinct was to drop down to the ground, but he
judged it too far for safe landing. Caution and experience suggested he
establish any alternative before risking action. A similar platform faced
him, and this seemed to meet a short crack around one wall. He ran across
to investigate.
Still the angry Brute hurled missiles somewhat uselessly in the Prince's
direction. As he dropped to the crack in the wall, he saw the hulking
monster on its side of the room, no doubt still determined to assault
him, still flinging unfortunate pets from an inexhaustible supply. He
shimmied out of eyeshot and dropped to a lower ledge, and then to the
ground.
A platform had raised up across the center of the room, linking as one
the Prince's platform and that of the Brute. His opponent showed no sign
of leaving its side. He would have to be dislodged.
As the Prince ran onto the central platform, the Brute cast down its toy
and lumbered forward to meet its new plaything. The weight of the massive
creature at once caused the platform to sink. There was no escape for the
Prince now. He dodged nimbly between the Brute's legs and began his
trusted tactic of slashing behind it. The giant seemed not to have
learned and swung its mighty fists at thin air around it. The Prince
managed ably to stay at its back as it leaped and turned to stamp down
with a roar. He soon brought it to its knees. Using the Eye of the Storm
then, he jumped up on its back and struck hard blow after blow to the
back of the thick rounded head. His blade clanged and knocked as the
infuriated Brute tried to throw him off, too clumsy to reach back and
pluck him away with the stricture of slowed Time upon it. With a final
two-fisted blow from the Prince's sword, in seconds it was gone in a
crumpled explosion of light that faded to mere yellow dust. With the
weight now lifted the platform rose up again.
The Brute had been guarding a massive clockwork mechanism. A dozen huge
wooden cogs turned one against another, to what purpose he could not
tell. At the center of each cog was a spindle, which the Prince judged
might serve as steps to a trapdoor he could see above. An upward run on a
brick wall and jump back brought him to the first spindle, and an easy
swing off to a beam formed by the second. He needed to time his jump
carefully from that. Though his direction was clear, a swinging pendulum
arm threatened his way. An acrobatic leap, swing, bounce and swing saw
him poised on another wooden beam, now high above ground. A second
pendulum barred his way at intervals, and he made sure to edge out on the
beam as far as he could that he might best avoid it. In moments he had
jumped out to a hanging ladder. He swung around it and up through the
open trapdoor.
He was on a high platform, a closed door at its middle. He looked out
across the Activation Room at a platform at the center of the three huge
wooden cogs he had released. A capstan sat on it. Though there was a
break in his balcony rail facing over, there was no way to leap to the
platform. To one side where the Prince stood was a hanging lever.
It took a run up the adjacent wall to gain height to reach it, but as the
Prince gave his weight to the lever it dropped down. Extending out from
his balcony a metal walkway reached to the central platform. As he ran
eagerly to it Spike Beasts landed in his way. He knocked every one
flaming to the edge, into exploding oblivion, and then lent his shoulder
to the capstan handle.
Along with the sound of a door opening, the three massive interlocked
cogs around him spun slowly to action. As they turned they moved gears
and hidden machinery. The last of the steel straps barring the massive
door he had seen in the Hourglass Chamber retracted, and it slowly swung
open.
"I fear my time is running short," the Prince mused. "While I rush about
activating towers, no doubt the Empress is busy creating the Sands."
He had to make haste back to the Hourglass Chamber and the Throne Room
beyond.
Through the now open door on the balcony platform ahead was a dusty stone
passage, where at a corner a large waterwheel gave pause for a carefully
timed run through its slow turning spokes. Up a flight of wooden stairs
he met a second wheel, similarly negotiated but with an athletic back
jump off the wooden plank wall at its far side to land safe at the head
of more wooden stairs. At the foot of these the Prince was beset by a
pack of growling Spike Beasts. He dealt with as many as he found sport
for his blade and moved on to a sudden edge in the passage, where a
series of hanging red curtains brought him swiftly to ground. Yet more
wooden stairs and more hanging curtains led soon enough to the floor of a
small empty chamber. As the Prince emerged through a doorway, the
clanking machinery all around looked very familiar to him. He was back in
the Mechanical Tower. Here was a hanging lever he had already used to
raise its central platform. He wasted no time in running onto it and down
the ladder in the gap at its middle.
The massive wooden wheel cranked swiftly as ever, and with a practiced
step the Prince edged along a wooden jetty to face another beyond the
spinning sails. A nimble jump and he was through.
-- THE DOOR IS OPEN -----------------------------------------------------
As the Prince lowered himself off the side of the room beyond he heard a
savage animal sound somewhere close by. Well he remembered the open stage
outside where he first met the hulking Brute, and here in endless
resurrection it waited once more. It seemed to the Prince that he need
scarcely trouble to best the creature yet again, and (his way forward
being otherwise clear) simply skirted the lumbering beast to the relative
safety of the narrow edge of the platform by the underfoot sluice, and on
up the series of wooden ledges where he first lowered himself to this
area.
A trio of waiting Raiders fell at first touch of his powerful blade, and
the Prince moved on up steps to where he recalled a set of pounding wall
blocks posed a barrier to the sluggish or unwary. He slipped easily
between. At the passage end he looked down to a gap with a ladder. He
observed at its foot twin grooves, across which a pair of saw blades
squealed and scythed. He slid partly down, and jumped over them. At a
platform edge he ran out to a hanging curtain and slid easily to the
floor. Across a spike pit was a door, and behind him a wall pressure
lever. He remembered his hope that he might use this on his return. The
gate was on a short ratchet and seemed likely to close before he had
negotiated the spike pit with a jump, and so prove an impassible barrier
to an ordinary man, but he had at his disposal the power to slow Time. An
added benefit in this was that two rotating sword traps beyond were more
easily negotiated at very slow speed.
He found himself back in the Central Hall, where he had last seen
Kaileena. Despite her doubts he had accessed the towers and completed his
task. The Throne Room was open. It was time to meet his appointment with
the Empress. He jumped across a set of columns to the central platform,
and down to its surface. He turned, ready to jump across to the fountain
basin at the head of the passage to the Hourglass Chamber when without
warning a terrible demon dropped down and barred his way.
"The Dahaka! It has learned to find me in the Past."
As the shocked Prince prepared to face his relentless enemy, the sinister
masked creature appeared behind him and advanced with menace.
"I don't have time for this!" said the Prince.
The Dahaka leaped towards the pair of them and bellowed as it landed,
shaking its fists. The Prince ran headlong, past the masked creature. The
Dahaka snaked out its tentacles. As the Prince fell with a cry, it
snatched up instead the mysterious being, lashing it through the air and
absorbing it into its belly with a flash of light and mighty roar of
triumph. Temporarily sated, it bounded away with a growl, leaving the
Prince to make sense of what he had seen.
-- THE EMPRESS ----------------------------------------------------------
He negotiated again the array of traps that led to Kaileena's Hourglass
Chamber, impenetrable defenses against lesser men but a fitting test of
his athletic ability. In no time he rolled beneath a closing door.
The Prince crossed the stone floor of the Hourglass Chamber. Five of the
nine symbols on the design centered on it were illuminated. He guessed
now that these bore relation to his visits to the mysterious glowing
device at each secret passage end to lend charge to his Amulet. When last
he had come here there were but two symbols lit up, and he had not made
connection with the two passages he had discovered by then, but with a
simple calculation he judged that he had indeed visited five separate
devices by now. This meant that, by the design on the floor, four others
lay undiscovered. He would remain alert to the possibility.
He stood before the Hourglass. Footsteps clicked behind him. Kaileena
gazed too at the steady running Sands.
"Time is running low," said the Prince. "You ready?"
She made no answer. He turned away. She followed.
"I've been thinking, Kaileena. There is little for you on this Island.
And there will be less still once I've stood before your mistress."
They mounted the curved sweeping steps to the Throne Room.
"Come with me to Babylon!" he urged. "You'll have a chance to begin a new
life, free from the evils of this place."
She looked aside and spoke quietly.
"I am sorry Prince, but I cannot take you up on your offer."
Kaileena walked away through the massive doors to the Throne Room. The
Prince stood grimly alone. He took last refreshment at a water basin to
hand, then followed after Kaileena to seek audience with the Empress of
Time. Not without some apprehension.
The Throne Room was a vast chamber. High tiered balconies admitted dim
light. Gigantic statues of a winged beast of some kind towered against
the walls and at the middle of the room were column spires of burning
incense. A long red carpet led up to a large throne canopied beneath huge
velvet drapes. Kaileena stood alone.
"Where is the Empress?" demanded the Prince. "Where are the Sands?"
Kaileena made no reply but walked calmly to a far wall between two of the
gigantic statues, where she depressed a lever. The massive door behind
the Prince crashed shut. He turned, confused and angry.
"What are you doing? You've trapped us in here!"
Kaileena walked across the room. "I am sorry, Prince, but only one of us
can cheat Fate today."
She stepped to the throne, and took up weapons laying wait on armrests
either side. A pair of cruelly hooked swords that fitted to her arms like
claws, hideously suited to their purpose. She imperiously brandished the
blades, crossed above her head.
"You..." gasped the Prince, "Are the Empress!"
She turned with a smile of triumph and spoke without emotion.
"I told you to leave, and yet you kept coming back. I began to wonder..."
There was menace in her words as she advanced purposefully.
"If you could change your Fate, perhaps I could change mine!"
She leaped at him. With no other recourse, the Prince drew his sword.
The Empress soon proved an able and determined opponent. Like the girl in
black she was quick to block and made lightning attacks that dealt rapid
damage. She effortlessly swept him aside when he held his block overlong,
forcing him onto the offensive. He summoned at once the Eye of the Storm
to slow Time sufficiently that he might limit her attack while he probed
for weakness.
"Fool! I am the Empress of Time, I know your every move before you do,"
she said as she held weapons aloft and blocked him. "I will always be one
step ahead of you, Prince, you cannot harm me."
Their weapons clashed again, and again as he rolled and dived in, trying
his best to subdue her.
"You are wasting your time," she assured him. "I can see the future."
They locked swords. Grimly the Prince used all his strength to force her
back. To his astonishment she now retreated and summoned a ball of energy
that grew up beneath, raising her in a whirling vortex.
"You shouldn't have come here," she warned. "I have seen your future, and
it does not look good."
On those words a pair of ethereal figures emerged. Tall, red-robed, armed
with swords, each eerily reminiscent of the Crow Master but deadlier yet.
They glided silently toward the Prince and together dealt swift life-
sapping blows in violent sweeping attacks. The Prince reeled back and
searched about for some advantage over the towering apparitions.
He looked to the ring of slender columns at the center of the room.
Backing to the nearest, the Prince lured the hovering demons in his path.
He used the column to deliver a swinging attack, rocking the stunned
creatures to a halt, then whirling to deliver a second blow. Backing off
to the next column before they recovered, he found if he were quick
enough that he could repeat the trick as many times as necessary to send
each one shrieking and shrinking to an intense ball of Sand, which had
the benefit of replenishing his meager supply. In their wake each
creature left also its weapon, which the Prince wasted no time in
snatching up to cast at the Empress as she descended to meet him once
more.
"Ha ha! It will take more than a simple sword strike to penetrate my
defenses! Time heals all wounds."
He slowed Time once again to repeat his attack. The Empress of Time moved
too swiftly if he did not, vanishing in an instant to reappear beside him
in a sudden assault. As he slowed her to manageable motion she raged in
fury.
"Do you think your powers are greater than mine?"
His skill with a sword matched her at least. The Empress broke away from
his determined attack.
"I had hoped the Dahaka would kill you," she spat sharply. "I had hoped
Shahdee could keep you from the Island, or the Towers would finish you
off."
She had been a step ahead of him all along. That he might learn his folly
she added a betrayal.
"I even cursed the sword I gave you. And yet you did not die!"
She flew at him with a cry of rage. He blocked with a clang of steel and
kicked her to the carpeted floor.
"Why would you do this?"
"I've already told you, I have foreseen my future to die at your hands.
But like you," she said as she regained her feet, "I've decided to change
it."
This last she cried out as a threat, and flew at him again.
He jumped nimbly in vaulted attack, which had served him so well against
almost every enemy. His speed caught her off balance and he slashed as he
landed, again and again. It was a risky strategy should he misjudge the
moment and catch her savage reply.
"You shouldn't have come here," she gloated. "You will not leave this
island alive."
"Nothing good will come of your sacrifice," offered the Prince.
The Empress was not to be dissuaded. He redoubled his efforts and got in
a series of heavy blows.
"Impossible!" she raged. "How could I have failed to see this coming? I
can see the future, but I did not see this."
Furiously she rose once more on her infernal vortex of brilliant light.
Once more the Prince was confronted by two slender gliding minions. This
time he moved forward to preempt the attack, and singled out the nearest
to vault over. It took but a few accurate slashes to send it fading to
yellow dust, and he dealt similarly with the other.
Confounded at the efficient dispatch of her minions, the Empress
descended to settle things herself.
The Prince was ready. Using his newly replenished stock of Sand he
unleashed the Eye of the Storm and moved swiftly, vaulting and slashing,
rolling and diving, somersaulting away to run in again, blocking her
retaliation and pressing, pressing, pressing, until she was beaten back.
"I mean you no harm, Kaileena," he panted, "but I must finish this."
She rushed at him again. As they flew past each other their raised
weapons clashed for the last time. His blade struck home. The Empress
staggered to a halt.
"You are a fool, Prince," she cried, through pain and breathless anger.
"No matter what you do, you still fail." She sank to her knees behind him
and the weapons fell from her hands. "Just as I have tried, and I have
failed."
The Empress collapsed. The Prince turned solemnly.
"I am sorry, Kaileena."
He walked wearily to her fallen body. Before he reached it, an intense
ring of yellow light burst from her, building in an instant to a blinding
flash that radiated across the Throne Room, knocking him back and shaking
the very foundation of the Island fortress, which fell all at once to a
dark shadow. As the shockwave hit, the ground trembled and shook. As the
Prince groped to his feet, a statue at one side of the Throne Room
crumbled. A passage was revealed.
The Prince of Persia stood victorious. He had defeated the Empress of
Time before she could create the Sands in the Hourglass. He could do no
more.
"I must return to the Present."
-- THE LONG WAY HOME ----------------------------------------------------
Outside the fortress walls in his own time the weary Prince jumps down
off a rock ledge with a heavy sigh.
"Despite all the warnings that I would fail, I have vanquished the
Empress and prevented the creation of the Sands of Time. I have defeated
the Dahaka and Fate itself."
He looks up at the desolate fortress. Wind moans about its colorless
walls.
"It's time to find a way off this rock."
The ground trembles. Heavy menacing footsteps come from behind and vision
fades to gray. Is it possible..?
"No! No, no, no!"
At his back the fortress wall is smashed from within. The Dahaka emerges
with a roar. A hand grabs behind him as the Prince scrambles back onto
the rock ledge in an effort to escape. Too late. A leathery tentacle
seizes his foot, sweeps him back, whirls him through the air and casts
him down inside the broken castle walls, where he lands heavily.
With barely time to think he takes to his heels. The Dahaka roars in fury
as it crashes after him, tentacles licking and probing through the very
stone beneath his feet as the Prince races down a passage. He jumps a
gap, runs up over a wall across a larger one, falls and turns a bend to
run over another. He leaps and grabs blindly at metal bars, swinging to a
crumbling path where, with a desperate cling at a rope he hauls on over a
pit. His scampering feet activate a wall switch and somewhere below a
door slots open. He seizes on a hanging red curtain, slides to the floor.
A doorway is open before him and he dives through. A heavy metal door
slides shut, the Dahaka hammers violently against it.
"What is this?" the stunned Prince asks himself. "I saw the Empress die,
she never created the Sands. There should be no Dahaka."
Stone crumbles from above, the Prince shields his head. The hammering at
the door stops and footsteps recede. He is trapped but mercifully alone.
He looks around, brow knit.
"And yet it still pursues me. What has gone wrong?"
He thinks again of his clash with the Empress. The blinding flash that
erupted from her body - had the Sands been within her from the start, to
be released only on her death, spilled to the Throne Room floor, yet to
be collected into the Hourglass? If so, then they had been created as a
consequence of his actions! The terrible realization hits him.
"I am the architect of my own destruction."
Light swirls from a high skylight. The Prince sees only darkness. He
slumps to the ground, despondent. Trapped and alone.
"So this is it. What is written in the Timeline cannot be changed."
The Dahaka hammers on a metal grille at the skylight overhead. The Prince
looks up, and gets defiantly to his feet.
"Come for me, then!"
The Dahaka moves away. The Prince stumbles wearily to a wall. It is
covered with strange hieroglyphs. His thoughts are in turmoil.
"In my quest to destroy the Sands of Time, I have been the one to create
them!"
As he touches the wall, his hand seems to pulse with light. The
hieroglyphs are illuminated like pages in a book. Ghostly images come to
him. Soldiers and an hourglass. The words in blue light form a narrative.
"Let all who read this know the courage and valor of those who fought and
fell for the Maharajah."
One soldier puts a hook to a chain on the hourglass, is about to drag it
down.
"We sought the power of the Sands of Time. Most found only death..."
An assassin sweeps his sword behind, and strikes off the soldier's head.
"...myself among them."
As the assassin stands over his victim, a shadowy figure materializes
behind and slays it. The figure rips a mask from its face. It is the
soldier.
"But the Mask of the Wraith gave me a second chance to travel back
through time and change my fate."
The Prince looks up, not fully comprehending.
"This mural shows the impossible..."
He considers for a moment.
"'But the Mask of the Wraith gave me a second chance'. There may still be
hope."
The Dahaka smashes against an outside wall, set to break through the
thick stone. The Prince has new resolve. He must find the mask and use
its power.
"You had your chance to take me," he declares. "You won't get another."
He is in a large dusty chamber of pillars and ledges, partly ruined. At
its center stands a tomb enclosed by four thick stone columns. High at
points around the room can be seen passage entrances but no means to
reach them. At one end of the chamber a shallow flight of steps lead
away, flanked at the foot by large statues of heads of fanged beasts,
their open mouths lit by flaming lanterns. With no other exit, the Prince
explores along the steps. An iron gate bars a passage at one side, so he
moves on.
Heavy footsteps come from behind, and the iron gate is punched aside as
the Dahaka bursts through with a roar.
With the beast at his back the Prince runs ahead to one side along a
wall, and jumps back to a broken platform. He smashes barrels with his
sword and runs on through the space, jumps to a bar and swings over a pit
to another and another, clings to a ledge and pulls up. With horror he
sees a hanging skeleton in a torture device. A place of terror indeed. He
mounts a wall, swings from a rope to continue his run, jumps back to
another broken platform, stumbles to a barrel that blocks his run to a
wall. He breaks it and scurries out on the wall to jump back to a
platform ledge. He scrambles to his feet, tentacles of the Dahaka
breaking through walls and the floor around him as he flees desperately
to some place that the beast cannot follow. Ahead is a hanging lever. The
Prince jumps to it and swings off, tumbling through a doorway as water is
released. The enraged Dahaka is left close behind, unable to pass.
"Disrupt the Timeline no further," the distorted guttural threat in the
Prince's ears. "You will be removed!"
He catches his breath. He is back in the room where he started, but now
on a platform high above. There is no obvious way down. He jumps to a
nearby stone block that forms a platform high above the ground. The
Prince notices the fortress symbol on a curious smoothly carved stone set
into an arched niche, at its front a bar handle. He pulls the carved
stone from the wall. Its weight causes the stone block on which he stands
to sink to the ground. As it falls, a huge stone block rises between four
pillars at the center of the room. High at the opposite side of the
ruined chamber the Prince sees two similar devices in pools of light from
above and wonders if he might plot a route to them. He hops down.
The huge stone block at the center of the chamber is too high to climb.
He must wait to discover its purpose. He runs back up the steps. The way
ahead is now blocked by fallen masonry in the wake of the Dahaka. The
Prince turns instead to the passage on the right. He must not get lost in
these Catacombs.
Ahead is a gap, mist rising from its depths. A simple wall run carries
him across but at once he senses the imminent reappearance of the Dahaka.
He runs out on a wall and leaps to grab a pole sticking out. In his
practiced manner the Prince swings safely to another, and from that to
the ground. No time for pause, the roar of the Dahaka very close behind.
Another gap brings a snap decision - the route branches left and right.
Without hesitation the Prince goes to the left. By a process he could not
easily explain, the growling noises of the beast have ominous meaning.
"No-one escapes the Dahaka."
Yet he must try. Rubble blocks his way but a low arch admits a running
roll. Tentacles reach out from the wall as he sprints forward along a
wall, grabs a rope to help him on his way and leaps for a bar, swinging
to pull up on a ledge. It seems a dead end, but with presence of mind the
Prince arranges himself between facing blocks and begins a swift chimney
ascent. The thwarted Dahaka beats his chest close beneath. At the top,
another collapsed column forms a low arch in his way and the Prince rolls
under and on without hesitation. Another dead end! Another frantic
chimney climb, back and forth between facing blocks as the Dahaka closes
in down below. He runs on to a very long chasm, spots a rope on the wall,
runs to it and on to another without break in his stride. A leap to a bar
and off to snatch one beyond and he flies through the air to a ledge.
There are two gaps ahead, the first taken at a leap and the second a wall
run. The Prince has no time to think, he must simply keep moving.
Tentacles sprout from the stones at his feet, reaching and probing. A
hanging curtain is escape and the Prince leaps to slide down. Collecting
himself at the bottom he runs off to one side, ducks through another pile
of rubble and along a wall to leap out to a broken platform. The roar of
the Dahaka is close by as he stumbles to yet another low arch of rubble
and a leap immediately after. He finds his fingers clutch to a hanging
lever, from which he swings to fall breathlessly through the doorway now
protected by water in front.
Once more the Dahaka stands furious beyond.
Nearly exhausted, the Prince can barely jump up to grab a ledge above his
head. He shimmies to a platform and hauls up. Here is another smooth
carved stone with the fortress symbol on it. Certain of his plan, he
pulls its handle.
Once again the heavy weight causes the column block on which he stands to
slowly descend, it grinding downwards as the huge block at the center of
the chamber rises higher. He hops down with satisfaction. He sees a
doorway of water on a high ledge opposite the top of the block and
understands their relation. He is certain that it will lead him from this
place. There is one more carved stone to be dragged from its niche. The
fork in the passage will surely lead him to it. He must face the Dahaka
again.
Once more up the steps and his first run on the wall across the passage
beyond has the Dahaka on his scent. The jump across bars is familiar to
him and he hops sure-footed across the pit to the fork in the passage
ahead. He runs hard to the right this time, his thoughts on the hazards
he had faced at the left. He steels himself for the trials ahead, jumps
over a pit to a hanging lever and straight through a doorway of water to
the safety of his chamber. It's about time he caught a break.
He runs up a broken wall to a ledge, and from that to another, and
another still higher. On this he moves sideways to drop down on a block
column with a carved stone in its niche. He pulls as before. This time as
he descends he notices the sheer surface of the central stone structure
become studded with ledges. A clear way ahead. He circles the block,
finds one ledge lower than the rest, makes his way swiftly to the top,
dust loosened at each step. He sees as he climbs that the pillars risen
from the ground are set with human bones. At the center of the platform
is a sarcophagus with sculpted warrior and sword. Lit brands crackle
among moldy cobwebs. Nearby is a curtain of water across a beckoning
doorway. A leap to a hanging bar, a swing, and he is in.
He finds himself in a narrow passageway. On his first step forward the
Dahaka bursts from the stone sarcophagus on the platform behind him and
roars his distorted threat.
"Where is he?"
Safe behind the curtain of water. To his relief, the Prince finds a basin
to refresh himself.
-- YOU CANNOT CHANGE YOUR FATE ------------------------------------------
With the possibility that he may get a second chance to put right what
has gone wrong, the Prince determines to return to the Throne Room in the
Past. He must find a Time portal.
The passage ahead lies somewhat in decay. Water pours to a deep pit,
which he passes at a run to a slender beam, hung with vegetation and
sprayed by rivulets off the rocky walls. As he edges to firmer ground the
Prince becomes aware of Keepers laying in wait.
"Do not allow him to pass."
Perhaps these had become more determined or his own abilities blunted by
his recent exertions, but the Prince finds it harder than before to
subdue these attackers. With numbers against him, he tosses his secondary
weapon at one to keep it at bay, and vaults the second to fling it over
the edge of the passage. Turning now to the other, he grabs it in a tight
headlock, where despite its furious struggle the wretch cannot escape.
The Prince applies force and with a crunch of cartilage snaps its
worthless neck. He hastens away to the passage end, where a run out on a
wall brings him to another section and two equally troublesome opponents.
There seems little to be gained from prolonged combat and the Prince
hurries to his path. On a slender beam of stone he takes stock. A misted
passage ahead is scarce lit by shafts of light that glitter on water
cascading to a torrent far below. He continues a precarious route along
beams and jetties until he faces a narrow passage packed with vigilant
sentries.
"Stand tall, human, and meet your fate."
There are too many to fight in a confined space. He launches the Breath
of Fate to cast all to the ground, then runs to a short ladder and scales
it to another ladder behind. At the top of this a leap backwards and he
clings to a niche in the stone walls, which he uses to shuffle to a
doorway. Inside, a rough passage.
In the close atmosphere leaves drift from overgrowth to the earth-strewn
floor. Dim light penetrates grillwork windows. Through a narrow slit the
Prince looks down on a chamber, a raised pedestal at its center.
Something glitters upon it.
"A sword," he observes. "Now how do I reach it?"
His throat dry from the stuffy air, the Prince drinks deep from a basin.
-- A THRONE AND A MASK --------------------------------------------------
As he passes through a series of very small rooms of crumbling brick, the
Prince realizes with a little trepidation that these are prison cells.
There is danger here yet, and on instinct he draws his sword.
At a last broken wall waits a Keeper. A masked assassin in female form
joins it in the open passage beyond. Though noticeably scantier clad,
this creature is such as the acrobatic Blade Dancers he has had the
misfortune to encounter so often before. They make the same Siren plea.
"Don't you know not to strike a woman?"
He is not swayed by base trickery. This perverted demon is hardly a
helpless female. It proves quick to strike at a moment he lets his guard
down, and soon sweeps him off his feet even should he block.
"Oh yes, this position suits you," the voice mocks as the creature stands
over him. "I LOVE being so close to you."
He deals with her in familiar style, yet this creature too is made of
sterner stuff than his enemies before. Though his determined assault at
length prevails, as another falls to take its place he decides to dodge
past.
"You aren't worth my time."
He balances out on a beam to a room beyond. It crumbles at his footing.
He turns to one side and edges cautiously. Another Assassin appears to
block his progress.
"Come closer Prince," she purrs, "I want to taste my victory."
He jumps at the precise moment of her gymnastic strike, sweeps his own
weapon, and clears the creature in an instant. He turns onto another
stone beam, and must repeat the trick as a second maiden of damnation
confronts him. At the relative safety of a platform, he looks down
through mist hanging in the stifling atmosphere of the room, open to the
elements and hung about with sinuous weeds. The sword waits on its
pedestal below.
He edges out on another beam and again this one cracks and rumbles to the
ground. With great daring and no other option he leaps to an unbroken
section of beam. It holds at his footing though partly breaks away, and
he steps quickly to another small platform. A swish of a weapon drawn
alerts him to an Assassin waiting on an adjacent platform.
"Poor Prince," she mocks. "Come to me!"
Not one to let a lady down, he runs out with sword at the ready, strikes
as if by instinct on passing, and the would-be impassable object falls to
dust. He drops onto her platform. From here he sees another and runs
easily to it. A red curtain seems not to have decayed beyond an ability
to hold his weight and he runs to it, falls to its end and springs back
to another, and drops at its length to the floor. Sections are broken
across to an abyss.
The Prince steps confidently for the sword. He is about to reach for it
when a roar from one corner announces arrival of the Dahaka from the
depths below. The nightmarish creation leaps and smashes down close by.
The impact sends the sword plunging to the abyss. The vengeful beast
turns attention to the Prince.
"Your end is near," its distorted voice booms.
Its quarry runs through an open door ahead and flies down stone stairs.
With no time to look or barely to think the Prince turns at the foot and
runs out on a wall over a bottomless pit. Finding his feet on the other
side he keeps downward, threads crazily left and right and left again
among barrels, the Dahaka close behind smashing his way through.
"Come to me," it seems to beckon. "Come to your death!"
The Prince dare not pause in his desperate flight. At another blind turn
he runs out once more across a broken section of the passage and dives
headlong through a blessed curtain of water ahead.
He has found at last a portal chamber. Once activated, he can return to
the Past.
-----------------------
Activate portal to Past
-----------------------
----------------------------------------------
YOU GAIN
W I N D O F F A T E
This power lets you do a stronger ground
attack than the Breath of Fate power.
Use this power when the Prince
is surrounded by enemies
----------------------------------------------
The passage was now brightly lit. Across a pit ahead, two spiked poles
slid fast back and forth where he must land. As they moved forward, the
Prince ran out on the wall towards them, yet instead of meeting as it
seemed certain they must, at his footfall the poles moved off in their
path, and he ran on to stone steps at one side. At the top of the first
flight a sword trap rotated busily. Beyond it, three pairs of saw blades
cut across the floor one above the other to the top of the flight. These
were easily taken with patience and timing.
He stood for a moment and sized up the next hazard. A slow pounding block
slid out from the wall, and a spinning pole forward and away close over.
Beneath, a deadly spike pit. The Prince dropped down and hung on to the
edge of the pit. The pole passed over his head and paused briefly. He
quickly jumped backwards, scrambling onto the sliding block and forward
again, to land safely the other side of the pit of spikes before the wall
block retracted or the spiked log returned.
He made his way up a final flight of stone steps. At the top a rank of
saw blades sparked back and forth on the floor. A recess to one side gave
him temporary shelter from their course. He turned to face three spiked
poles, barring further access up the passage steps ahead. One pole slid
sideways for a moment or two, at which he ran behind the slicing blades
and dodged for the gap between the spiked poles. On either side of him
were small barred windows. He confirmed his suspicion that this was
indeed the castle prison. On passing over a floor pressure pad a door
opened, and with relief he left the infernal corridor of traps.
Here was where the Dahaka had reappeared in his devastated Present. It
was a large hall of closed doors. The floor was here complete, no abyss
below. In this more perfect Past the sword was still mounted on its
pedestal at the center of the room. His own sword had seen much action so
he cast it aside and eagerly snatched up his prize.
"Good, good, this should make things easier."
----------------------------------------------
YOU GAIN
S C O R P I O N S W O R D
This sword is stronger than walls.
----------------------------------------------
From a corner of the hall, intruders tumbled from an open cell. The
Prince hurried over to stem the tide of rushing red hooded guards. His
new sword proved invaluable in rapid dispatch of each as they came. By
using Eye of the Storm as so often before he slowed Time for all but
himself and made short work of combat, though their number seemed
relentless.
"He doesn't deserve to win," one protested. "Attack him now!"
Even when he thought he had peace, two more came running from another
open doorway. He dealt with them as easily.
The Prince looked around the large hall of doors. Just two were open.
Since the first cell appeared empty, and he knew what lay beyond his
entrance doorway, the Prince took the opportunity to find where the two
new arrivals had come from.
Down a brightly lit passage of minor obstacles the Prince came to a
roughly barred door. Where this might have prevented him access before,
his new sword had sufficient strength to clear it at a blow.
"Finish him," hissed an inhuman voice, "Finish him at once!"
He looked carefully around the room beyond but found no enemy in sight.
It had dawned on him that he was in the Prison of the fortress, and here
were several small rooms each tight shut that might serve as cells. At
either side, a furnace blazed, but he guessed these were not for the
comfort of the occupants. On the floor to one side a prominent floor
switch opened one cell room, but it immediately slid shut as he stepped
off. Beside this a short staircase gave onto a platform with a capstan.
A simple rotation opened a different cell - and released two enemies,
striking their blades in readiness. Tall Executioners, their instincts
given only to death and destruction. As they brandished their weapons the
Prince headed down to face them. The odds were against him as still
others crowded around. He took note of a pair of slender columns in the
middle of the room, and since he found initial combat with these
professional killers more arduous than most foes he had yet faced, the
Prince made good use of his environment to finish the vicious horde at a
sweep.
In one open cell he found a metal cage, about the shape and size to fit
over the floor switch. He had utilized a crate once before for a similar
purpose, and dragged the cage over the floor pressure pad. By this
ingenuity the last cell door was raised. He made his way in to see what
it might contain.
It was not a cell but a passage to a hole in the floor served by a
ladder. He lost little time sliding down. At its foot waited more Keepers
under guidance of an Executioner. To one side a passage, slow sweeping
sword blades preventing safe entry. The Prince took the opportunity to
fling his senseless enemies into the path of the blades.
He followed down that same passage but rolled clear beneath the deadly
sweeping swords. On a turn he rolled under a rotating blade, and others
beyond, flanked by vicious saw blades. The passage came to a dead end at
a decrepit wall. The Prince decided to test the limits of his new sword.
He drew it and struck hard at the wall. It shattered and he was through.
Here was another grouping of cells. A floor pressure pad sprang an array
of spike tiles across the room between, and a spike pit was open at one
side. This might have been the punishment block. A capstan lever opened
the cell doors, and from the low archways came hurrying Keepers. Directly
over the spike tiles. With grim satisfaction the Prince made skewered
dust of the misguided gang, and flung a last survivor to the pit for good
measure. One of the open cells housed an illuminated wall switch, and
though the door that it opened proved on a short timer, the Eye of the
Storm allowed time enough for the Prince to run through it.
Beyond he found yet another room of cell doors. These were open, and a
trio of Executioners hurried out to challenge him.
"You should never have come to our island."
Making use of a column at the center of the room, the Prince whirled into
the evil foe and decapitated each without pity or remorse. When the dust
settled, he made for a capstan in an alcove room. The Prince rotated its
handle until it locked into place. The door he had entered clanged shut
with an ominous finality, and at the far end of the passage he was in a
door opened. There was a basin, where the Prince took his fill. Who could
say when he might come to danger again? At one side, a gap in the floor,
a spike pit below. The only way was up, and the only way up a wall run
and chimney ascent between paneled arches. He pulled up into a large
vaulted room.
He was back in the hall where he acquired the Scorpion Sword. His long
excursion it seemed had been for nothing. As he made his way in to
consider his plan, thunderous footsteps came from behind. The enormous
Brute had found another place to practice its crude art. In this
incarnation it appeared to have much greater strength than before, but
would surely have to be countered in the usual manner. The Prince was
grateful for a store of Sand he discovered in a vase at one end of the
hall, yet found that he need not rely completely on the Eye of the Storm
for his advantage. He could bring the giant down if he only stayed behind
and slashed at its unprotected hamstrings, and this he could do in normal
time by rolling between the Brute's legs whenever it tried to turn. He
then mounted one foot and struck at the head. Should a hand reach behind
he simply blocked, and moved to the opposite shoulder. As the creature
gave up scrabbling behind, he continued striking its cranium dome. Sparks
and dust and spurts of blood flew as he landed hit after hit, shaking the
furious beast senseless. After a few dozen clanging, banging blows from
the powerful Scorpion Sword it collapsed to dust with a roar.
When the Brute crashed to the floor the shock dislodged a short ladder
from a ledge in the corner of the anteroom from which it emerged. The
Prince made his way in, and climbed up.
He was in a small empty cell. An illuminated wall switch opened its door.
A harsh voice threatened as he stepped through.
"Attack him! Do not let him escape."
Three Executioners hurried to challenge him on a narrow square balcony.
Open at its center the Prince could see down below the large room in
which he just defeated the Brute. As the first Executioner attacked, he
leapt at it and flung the hoodlum into the gap. A second was parried with
his sword, and as the other gathered close the Prince grabbed hold of one
of many round columns around the floor gap to whirl off and deal a
devastating blow on the pair of them at once. A few repeat flurries about
the column and they were gone.
He had won the right to investigate the doors around the balcony. At
either end were large doors, one open ready for exploration, and the
other firmly shut. All smaller doors ranked at the sides were equally
solidly shut, yet one archway appeared roughly patched with planks of
wood. A blow of his new sword smashed it through. The small chamber
beyond contained no less than a wall switch bearing a familiar symbol at
its center. Although easily activated, the Prince could see nowhere about
the balcony the door thus opened by the switch, though he could hear it
close by. A concealed switch might open a concealed door, he reasoned,
and made his way around the balcony examining each door very closely.
None of the many smaller cell doors would yield to his sword, yet at one
corner a wall looked badly cracked... Another mighty blow broke it
through, and here indeed was a hidden cell with what might serve as a
secret entrance at one end. He hurried back to the wall switch and
reactivated it, and heard as before the nearby door slot open.
Unfortunately, it slid shut very soon after, and the Prince realized he
would need the Eye of the Storm to give time enough to race to the secret
door. Even then the timing was tight.
As he might have expected, a corridor of traps was hidden behind. At a
flight of steps twin spiked logs scythed up and down, yet hardly hindered
his careful roll and dash beneath. At the head of the steps was a long
passage, sunlight slanting to reveal a carpet of spike tiles, across
which swept twin sword blades. Taking note of a pair of moving spike
poles at a doorway to the passage end, the Prince chose his moment to
move forward across the spike tiles, rolling under the blades as they
swept past, and tumbling through the open doorway as the poles moved away
from it. He was not best pleased to find a near identical passage beyond.
This time he made for the safe haven of an alcove, where he caught his
breath to consider the next obstacle. Three spike poles slid back and
forth across his path, with another at station to the foot of a stairway
in front, where the traveling poles met. He chose carefully the moment to
dash forward as the obstacle parted. Once safely past he took pause on
the stone stairway to time a roll beneath a second pair of descending
spinning spike logs, and to his relief found a familiar sight at the end
of the short passage at the top. He stepped forward to recharge his
Amulet at the glowing red device.
----------------------------
YOU GAIN
L I F E U P G R A D E
As the Health bar increases
the Prince becomes stronger
----------------------------
What hand constructed these devices he did not know. What mind devised
the deadly array of traps to protect each one he could not guess. What
purpose they served to another he could never imagine. Yet they seemed
perfectly suited to his own use and he felt somehow certain of the need
to visit each one as he discovered it. He undeniably reaped the benefit
each time.
As he made his way back past the now silent traps the Prince could not
help noticing the very many tiny barred windows set low to the floor,
like the others he had seen throughout this part of the fortress. As a
prison it was extensive. At the passage end he ran over a prominent floor
switch to open the door, and returned to the balcony room.
Through the ready open doorway nearby a narrow chamber of closed doors
and alcoves offered no obvious advance in his mission to return to the
Throne Room. Yet there was a network of slender stone beams apparent
overhead and he wasted no time in leaping up off the wall at the far end
of the chamber to climb up to the lowest. This needed a measured leap at
the very height of his ability. A daring rebound jump off the same wall
saw him grasp a second beam higher up, and a ledge assisted him to a
third higher still. He stepped off to another chamber with more beams
overhead. Here too was a stone fountain of water. Refreshed, he made his
way up the beams to the height of the chamber, where a wide expanse of
sunlit stairway waited invitingly.
Well he had learned the lesson of caution, and as he advanced to the head
of the steps and made for an open doorway, a pair of masked Assassins
confronted him. He had already learned that these were as likely to
vanish as swiftly as they swooped if he did not bother to engage, yet
with the power of his Scorpion Sword they proved no more of an obstacle
than any foe he habitually crossed. In either event he soon stepped
through the open doorway.
Inside was a room lined with tall bookshelves, and a network of others
beyond.
"Kaileena's library," he marveled. "What knowledge must be contained
within. I suspect there is much she could have taught me, had things gone
another way."
In front of him was a heavy table wedged between two bookcases. This
served as the only other exit from the small room where he entered, and
as he climbed over it a command boomed out from the next room.
"Attack him at the same time."
Four Executioners in chain-mail helmets crowded around him, hefting maces
and heavy swords. He sprang acrobatically over and behind, and rebounded
off walls to scatter them each as they came. His speed and agility
frustrated their power, and as he pressed hard they collapsed. The Eye of
the Storm served him well as a heavy weapon began its assault, that he
caught only a single blow instead of reeling off balance from a full
sequence of three or four. With his assailant caught in the sticky web of
slowed Time he was able to slip behind it instead and bring the brutal
attacker to heel. To free space for fighting the Prince moved to the next
part of the room, whereon a pair of Assassins swooped down to join the
offensive. With no shortage left lying around, the Prince tossed salvaged
weapons full into their faces, and closed in to finish them off.
With peace to explore, he found the room centered on an arched doorway
bearing on it the fortress symbol. The corresponding switch was not in
evidence. To each side was a cylindrical turret housing a capstan. The
nearest one proved to operate a section of sliding bookshelf, which
closed off a section of the room as another one opened. He could well
understand the wedged table now, for it enabled two parts of the room to
remain open at once. Looking up, he could see there were wall bars and
high beams, but as yet no way to reach them. He hurried to the second
capstan, and anticipated that it might also slide two sections of high
walling bookshelf. This proved to be so, yet it also freed two more
sturdy Executioners. These pursued him about the now enclosed space,
crashing through furniture and smashing pots as they swung their weapons
blindly. He found it little challenge to extinguish them one after the
other without recourse to his special powers.
In a small room off the book section he discovered a wall counterbalance
lever. This would surely open the door in the main room. He heaved it
down fully, and then dropped off to go back to the capstan to switch the
book sections back and release himself from the section this side. Once
the handle had duly been turned, he called on the Eye of the Storm, since
time had inevitably been spent in its activation and the central door was
closing down all the while. He slipped underneath with little to spare.
Without hesitation he ran on up a ladder, where at a balcony walkway
another pair of masked maidens confronted him.
"I'm not here to hurt you," one pouted.
He had heard that lie before. He blocked their sudden vicious assault,
but was sure not to stand still for too long lest they hook his feet out
from under him. As one sprang with legs split over his head he moved
fast, with the certain knowledge that the aim was to wrap him in a deadly
embrace and hold him helpless while slashing his throat. He instead
issued a lightning response, turning swiftly to dummy an attack but then
deal the blow in the opposite direction to catch them as they landed
behind. Each creature took only a few blows to weaken such that he could
slice it apart. He retrieved the weapon off one and used it to beat off
the other. At an earlier time he had noticed that the sword dropped by a
Chameleon creature took life from his body on every stroke that he made.
The Prince was astonished to detect that each blow he dealt with the
weapons off these maidens of death had the opposite effect, and seemed
surely to increase his strength. He used it with relish till it broke
apart. He moved on where another female Assassin dropped down on the next
turn. He similarly topped up his strength as he wiped her to a mere trace
of dust.
There were several levels to the library room. He had recently fought at
ground level, now on small octagonal balconies he passed over the roof of
each little capstan turret. Looking up again he saw more ledges higher
still. He must find a way up to them. At the end of the balcony walkway
he came on a squared open room where grim Executioners stood ready.
"Soften him up," said their leader, "I will finish him after."
Swiftly dropping to join this attack came still more Assassins.
Temporarily disadvantaged, the Prince stood at a sword's length for a
half second to buy time to summon the Wind of Fate. He had used this
tactic before when surrounded, and felt now the power increased. The
resultant firestorm flattened all enemies, and he moved first to finish
any that regained their footing. He made good use of close bookshelves
and walls to bowl over any survivor that pressed him too close, and
eventually the room and the length of the balcony were his to command. He
had come to a dead end. Looking up where he knew he must go, the Prince
noticed a wall bar strung across the room, but could see no way to reach
to it.
He observed dark markings on the floor where he stood, as if dust had
gathered about some object long established there. On closer inspection
he considered adjacent wall pillars, which seemed to have on them metal
handles at a convenient height. The pillars were in fact recessed
bookshelves, which on extension fitted perfectly to the marks on the
floor, and also served as two sides to a chimney ascent. From the top of
one he could reach to the wall bar, and the work of moments found him
balancing along a high beam out over the full height of Kaileena's
Library.
Brilliant shafts of light strung down at his feet as he inched his way
out into the main room. Richly decorated panels covered the ceiling and
walls. Lanterns swung slightly from wall bars. In moments the Prince
swung off them too. At a wall he made his way up stone ledges to a wooden
transom leading back to a room that had somehow fallen to ruin. Here was
rubble and broken walls, curious when the rest of the library, though
dusty, seemed in good repair. He dropped down and clambered to face the
library through a hole in the wall. Here by way of other ledges he jumped
back to a thin pier formed by the top of one of the octagonal balconies.
On making his way carefully into the room, a Blade Dancer appeared
swiftly in his path. He stood his ground and waited for her swoop attack.
A jump and a slash, and she was gone. He edged out to the center and
jumped across the long drop to the library floor to the second octagonal
pier.
He could see across to one corner the light of a room framed in a space.
It was the work of moments to jump over to ledges that brought him to
haul up into it. Here was a private room that matched the ruined one full
of rubble he had just left. Through this lay an open door and a passage
beyond. Traps sprang to action as he entered.
At the bottom of stone stairs a stationary spiked log revolved. He could
see a sword blade drum trap rotating close beyond. From a level perhaps
five or six steps up from the log he ran easily over it and dropped safe
beyond reach of the sword drum. A fast falling spike log midway down
steps at the turn did not delay him, but bright streaming light near
obscured three spinning saw blades in the floor at their foot. These were
flanked across the surface of the floor by spike trap tiles. He waited
until the fast rolling blades were closest to him then swerved around
behind them, to thread between two spike poles spinning in station, and
on across the steely springing spike traps. Catching his breath in shafts
of light streaming through a window at a corner, he looked down a last
flight of steps with two spinning but stationary logs, one close by at
his feet and another scything at head height a little beyond. He judged
his distance perfectly to run over the first and drop down beneath the
second. At the foot of the steps he turned to see, as hoped, the glowing
red symbol at the passage end. He stepped through thin clouded dust to
claim his reward.
----------------------------
YOU GAIN
L I F E U P G R A D E
As the Health bar increases
the Prince becomes stronger
----------------------------
With the Amulet charged, the Prince turned back along the now darkened,
silent corridor. Such light as there was shafted in through barred slits
at the windows. It lent no warmth to this desolate place. He lost no time
retracing his steps, up onto the beams and out into the Library. On the
ledges around the doorway he had need to hang from a higher nook to give
elevation to reach the balcony pier. Carefully skirting this to the wall,
he was able to jump to a lower platform.
A beam led out from this, where at once appeared a Blade Dancer. He held
firm and timed his counter at an exact moment after her swiped approach,
leaping expertly over her blade and on his return slashed her to dust.
With this minor interruption he balanced out on a jetty. He leaped to a
doorway, landing hard with a groan. A low wind moaned above an empty
room. He jumped out across beams, which though they spilled dust held his
weight. Around a corner, more beams. He jumped again, setting swinging as
he brushed it a lit torch suspended on a chain. The light swung eerily
across the beams beneath his feet. He arrived at another elevated
doorway.
"These diversions are costing me time. Best I hurry to the Throne Room,
and the Mask."
The Prince dropped to the floor. Here was a basin for refreshment. Around
a corner, a spinning spiked log rolled up and down above a pit. The way
across was by two wall poles, the spinning log between. A careful jump
and the Prince swung beneath the log and onwards, to haul up on a stone
passage beyond.
The sound of a weapon being drawn and a few scampering footsteps alerted
him to the Blade Dancer setting ambush the other side of a pit. With the
benefit of a secondary weapon he could hurl it to catch her with no risk
to his person, but he began his wall run regardless, and slashed her
contemptuously aside as she similarly attempted a wall run at him. A
short flight of stairs led up to another pit, which the Prince traversed
beneath a window to one side, since the other was blocked by a pilaster.
On the far side prowled a lone Spike Beast, which he cast in a fiery ball
to the pit below. This could only mean that he was again in the vicinity
of the Mechanical Tower, their chosen territory. He gave little pause
before a barred door, breaking it down with a blow from his sword.
He was indeed back in the Mechanical Tower, at the very spot where he
encountered the first of the hellish growling Spike Beasts, and soon made
his way across to the central platform there. Here was the ladder leading
down from the higher platforms. It seemed a long time since last he used
it. He edged out on the short beam facing the huge spinning wheel, well
practiced at the jump between its sails by now. He landed firmly on the
other side and remembered the basin to hand there.
He remembered too that nearby was the habitual haunt of the Brute, and as
he dropped down ledges to the ground with its roar close by, he
considered that he might save his energy as before if he only ran past
the lumbering beast. Far from holding terror for him as might be
expected, he had become weary of it. He made his way easily past, with a
wary eye on its pursuit, and ascended once more the ledges at the far end
of the platform.
At the top a handful of Raiders still posted as sentries fell under the
weight of a single blow from the mighty Scorpion Sword. He hurried on up
a staircase and made quite routine the passage between slow pounding wall
blocks to the ladder descent above saw blades. The falling gate and
swishing blades were so easily judged now that it felt to him almost like
coming home. Back in the Central Hall, more Raiders had been sent to wait
his return.
"Alert the others!" came a harsh voice. These similarly presented little
opposition, and he was unconcerned at a dying threat. "Others will rise
to take my place."
He knew he must now return to Kaileena's Throne Room. He recalled the
symbols on the floor of the Hourglass Chamber outside it and judged that
he was yet short two of the nine charges for his Amulet. He remembered
the barred alcove to a high balcony he passed when in pursuit of Shahdee,
the girl in black. He could not have known then that he would acquire a
weapon the likes of the Scorpion Sword. He knew it could break down
walls, and trusted its ability in levering obstinate difficulties, and
sensed that partly broken bars might prove little test.
He recalled well in which direction this lay. Turning once more to the
capstan on the Central Hall platform, he rotated its handle to face back
to the rose. This had been the position of the blocks when he first made
exploration in this Central Hall. He retraced his steps, now armed with a
wall-breaking sword.
He climbed the set of three blocks to gain height to the slender central
columns. He was soon on a wall run to the balcony door, where as before,
a lone Raider rushed to meet him. A sword that could break down walls
could deal with the thickest of skulls; a single stroke of the Prince's
new blade brought dying protest:
"This offense will not be forgiven."
Tell someone who cares. The Prince had moved on.
Ahead were the three short pits faced by spinning blade poles, as easily
crossed as before. He dropped down the first ladder, falling behind a
Raider who disappeared with a shriek at the first touch of the Scorpion
Sword. Past spike poles and down ladders, brushing aside more careless
Raiders, he negotiated the Southern Passage and ran once again through
the misted corridor, which this time did not obscure spike trap tiles
that hissed and shot up behind his scampering feet. Spinning poles alike
did not long hold him from his eager quest to complete the circle of
power to his Amulet, and soon enough he emerged in the room of balconies
and ledges. Demonic threatening exhalations echoed within but the
creatures that stood in his way were but practice for his blade, falling
at a stroke be they Keeper, Blade Dancer, or Silhouette. Heads rolled and
bodies were cleaved in two. He ascended once again the precarious ledges
and beams to the top of the intricate chamber of pillared balconies,
sweeping aside all who stood in his way.
He arrived at last at the topmost balcony. Here again he cleared easily
its demonic guardians. Looking up, he saw once more the lit passage
through a wall up above, tantalizing because inaccessible. He examined
the cracked metal bars of the alcove beside him and tested them with his
blade. He had confidence as he lent all his energy to a tremendous blow,
and the bars split apart. Inside was the sturdy decorative crate, a good
size for climbing on. He dragged it out of the alcove and up to the wall
with the passage above. In moments he was upon it, and with an acrobatic
rebound off a short wall overhead hauled up into the secret passage.
A wall switch opened a door on a very short timer, and with the power of
the Eye of the Storm at his disposal, the Prince ran in, and on through a
series of sword traps, spike tiles, spike pits, and rolling logs, so many
and varied that, though he managed his way at last to the glowing red
symbol, he should not have been able to recount how exactly, if asked.
----------------------------
YOU GAIN
L I F E U P G R A D E
As the Health bar increases
the Prince becomes stronger
----------------------------
With his Amulet almost fully charged, the Prince made his way back along
the silent passage. At its end, a low ledge served as the crate had done,
to raise him over the shut door. He soon dropped down to the balcony room
and made his way along the high beam to the jetty facing the long red
curtain to the ground. He had no need to operate the hanging lever since
the door below was still open. He jumped forward to drop down the curtain
to go through it.
Down narrow steps and another curtain, to the dank passage of spike pit
and projecting beams, with spike trap tiles at the far side. Through a
doorway at the next turn he was again in the Sacrificial Altar. The steps
in front had been knocked out as he remembered, so he could not scale
them as he had last time. Yet the rubble formed steps of a kind at one
side. Mounting this he made his way via ledges on pillars to jump down on
the ghastly blood stained altar that formed the arena where Kaileena, and
then he himself, had fought Shahdee. He hurried across and scaled the
blocks of rubble and made his way up the wall and around by ledges,
poles, and ropes as he had done before, each footfall, gasp and grunt of
effort echoing eerily in the desolate room.
He hesitated a little as he approached the small octagonal chamber, but
no enemies came at him this time. He swiftly ascended by ledges and bars
to the platform with its hidden spike traps. He climbed again the wall of
ledges to the rolling log, giving pause at its height. Soon enough he was
safely by and ran on to the pit crossed by ropes, dodging saw blades
either end. He threaded his way through a nest of spinning spike poles
and arrived at last at a familiar Time portal, still active. He could not
reach the Hourglass Chamber from here. He must go to the Present.
-----------------
Portal to Present
-----------------
Although the darkened passage seems to take a different configuration
than his experience of it in the Past, the way is familiar to him and the
Prince easily dodges spinning poles and spike traps to a short narrow
ledge, and drops down on others to the ground. He uses his ability to
slow Time to get himself through the closing door at the adjacent
passage. Two Raiders stand mute as before and he wastes little breath in
brushing them aside to drop down at the end.
Well he remembers the first appearance of the Dahaka at this place. The
hole the terrible creature rent in the wall is still there. He works
swiftly to it, the enemies gathered at the platform below mere sport for
his powerful sword. On entering the smashed hole once again he soon finds
the walkway outside crumbled completely after his desperate flight from
the nightmarish pursuer. Instead, fallen rubble allows him to climb up
beside and shimmy instead, around the wall to cling outside the fortress
and up onto a rampart. Tattered red banners hang forlornly in thick gobs
of rain that sleet from a leaden sky. The Prince drops down to find the
small hole he had used as refuge from the Dahaka. He rolls inside once
again and finds at the passage end a fresh sentry, as uselessly ordered
as the last.
"I don't like the looks of this," it protests with a certain
understatement.
A wall run out to the barley-cane column and he returns to the vestibule
at the Fortress Entrance. It all seems a long time ago. The red curtain,
the column, a shimmy round a ledge - as many Keepers as stand in his way
do not slow his intent. Where the Dahaka pursued him to the curtain of
water there is now only silence, broken by the forlorn squeak of a
uselessly spinning saw blade deep in a pit as he crosses.
The portal is still active. Steam rises to the cold air from the spiral
at its eye. He hurries to return through it to the Past.
--------------
Portal to Past
--------------
With the route clear in this fully functional Past the Prince can get
back to the Central Access Hall.
Once more skirting traps and Raiders, he made his way through the
vestibule where the strange savage creature had attacked him with an axe.
He triggered easily the switch to the door to return outside and reenter
the doorway with sliding spiked poles. The same wearisome opponents faced
him at the Fortress Entrance, and in the Central Hall itself.
With a little peace the Prince set the capstan handle to face the passage
to the Hourglass Chamber. Stone blocks rearranged to complete the
flooring back towards the fountain on that side. The Prince considered
his options. From one side he looked down and saw a doorway behind a thin
stream of water silently pouring from one of a row of stone spouts from
high above to ledges beneath. Just below him was a block platform
promising first means of access towards it. He was all too aware that he
lacked the final piece to fully unlock the power of his Amulet, and he
felt now (with all other doorways explored) that the mechanism must be
contained within the entrance down there.
He hopped off to the nearest block just a foot below the platform edge.
Hanging off one side of this, the Prince decided on his daring athletic
chimney descent whereby he sprang backwards to touch against a facing
wall and on first footing sprang back, dropping down a little as he did
so, then straight back off the first wall to repeat the extraordinary
feat, all the way to the bottom in a slow confident rhythm. On safe
landing he seemed for a moment to be stuck, but looked out to one side
and judged he might repeat the maneuver on a nearby chimney of facing
blocks. He boldly ran out on the wall, and when nearing the end of his
trajectory, sprang out in another audacious leap to touch lightly against
the facing column he had seen. He sprang backwards again and yet again,
this time with his weight forcing him upwards to a place where he caught
hold and climbed up. There could be little doubt no other could scale the
obstacle so ingeniously.
Looking down once more he saw the doorway now tantalizingly close. From
misty depths he made out a narrow ledge at the base of the door column,
and judged once more that his chimney descent might gain access to it. It
was the work of moments to run out on the smooth wall ahead and spring
back, to descend by slow turns to grapple onto the ledge beside the door.
He edged around the column and stood before the doorway. A thin drape
fluttered at its face. He made his way inside.
At a turn he encountered spinning logs and a carpet of spike tiles. A
rolling log descended at the mid point of the short passage, and either
side were spinning poles traveling side to side across half of the floor,
two at the right and one to the left. As the falling log hit its low
point of travel the Prince set off at a run, first ducking left of the
nearest spinning pole then passing under the log, then switching to the
right side of the passage to avoid the second traveling pole, and back to
the left to avoid the last. All at a steady zigzag run to stay ahead of
the sprung tile traps. The passage switched back in the other direction,
and here was set a rotating sword. He rolled expertly beneath it, and
stood at the top of a flight of steps to size up the next obstacle. Two
spinning logs blocked a run down the steps and a third log rolled back
and forth towards him. He chose the moment to follow its travel on a wall
run, passing over the first spinning log and dropping down under the
second, the rolling spiked log yet harmlessly out of touch. Around the
bottom corner he saw the red wall symbol ahead.
----------------------------
YOU GAIN
L I F E U P G R A D E
As the Health bar increases
the Prince becomes stronger
----------------------------
Now that he had collected all nine charges to his Amulet, he felt best
equipped for any hazard that he might find in his quest for the Mask.
Then he would face the Empress again. The next time would be different.
Back at the Central Hall he was tempted to make a leap forward from the
passage doorway to a likely block opposite, but looked instead to a safer
prospect nearby. An upward chimney ascent saw him on the central platform
once more. His route to the Hourglass Chamber was as perilous as ever but
he was now well used to the intricate obstacles and knew the proper
course against each.
He soon rolled under the door to the Hourglass Chamber. He noticed with
satisfaction that all nine symbols on the floor design were lit. On a
small pedestal placed in the circle at its center rested an unusual
weapon. He would attend to that later. He needed to get into the Throne
Room but Kaileena had sealed it from within. A door had opened to one
side at the foot of the stairs. The Prince hurried through, finding on
the other side a capstan, which appeared to do no more than crank shut
the stone door behind him.
He was faced with a run out on a wall under scything saw blades. Judging
the moment as the rise of a spinning pole just beyond, a backward leap
brought him beneath its spiked reach to a narrow platform, where he
dropped to cling and catch his breath as it descended once more. On its
subsequent rise, the Prince scrambled to his feet and ran forward,
leaping a bottomless gap to grab to safety on the other side. Again, this
was a path no ordinary man would easily negotiate.
He made his way up a dark passage. At the top was the brightly lit Throne
Room. This entrance had been concealed behind a now collapsed statue. The
room seemed deserted as he stepped out. Faint golden swirls of sand
glittered on the marble floor.
"The Sands of Time. After all I've done to be rid of them, still they
haunt me."
He made his way up to the throne, his thoughts troubled.
"Even if I am to find the Mask of the Wraith, Fate will find a way to
reclaim me."
The Prince looked out over the Throne Room. If he kills the Empress he
will release the Sands. If he does not, she will create them.
"I will only be given a second chance... to fail."
He slowly ascended the carpeted steps to the throne of the Empress of
Time. He pounded his fist in his palm.
"I'm overlooking something. I must think this through."
He looked around. Something about the cracked stone behind the seat of
the throne caught his attention.
"This wall," he considered. "It looks similar to the ones I saw on my way
back from the prison."
He jumped up on throne. Placing his ear to the stone he tested his sword
with a speculative tap.
"It worked earlier..."
As walls had before, the cracked stone gave way. The Prince smashed
through to reveal access to a new portal chamber. He must return to the
Present and try to find the Mask. As he ran forward, rubble collapsed to
block the hole behind. The Prince ran panting onto the platform of the
Time portal.
The proximity of this new chamber to the Throne Room gave the Prince the
first inkling of a plan.
"What if..." he wondered, "What if Kaileena didn't die in the past but
the present? The Sands would be created but the Maharajah would fail to
find them. They would never be brought to his palace, and I would never
release them. The Dahaka will have no business with me."
He looked to the portal at his feet.
"My goal is clear then: use the Mask to force Kaileena into the present,
where I can kill her. It's simple!" he reasoned. "Or sounds simple."
-- THE FACE OF TIME -----------------------------------------------------
--------------------------
Activate portal to Present
--------------------------
----------------------------------------------
YOU GAIN
N E W S A N D T A N K
A new sand tank lets you stock more
Sands of Time
----------------------------------------------
Behind the throne is now solid rock. The Prince finds a doorway next to
it that leads into a darkened cave. Here are rocky ledges, and thin
shafts of light streak from a hole in the cave roof high above. He sees
the glow of light from a doorway somewhere out of reach but before he can
consider this, low animal growls and snicker of claws on bare rock alert
him to the presence of a pack of slavering beasts, scavengers in this
dark place.
He sees off the nearest attacker and runs up onto a high rock platform.
On top waits another, and he knocks it aside as he looks about for safer
refuge. To one side, a pale area of rock has been worn away by the
passage of many clawed feet, giving clue as to the route to a second rock
platform. He scampers easily over, and continues a run out on another
scored path. A Scavenger blocks him, but is slashed aside to fall to the
cave floor with a howl. His stride hardly broken, the Prince leaps off to
a platform. A climb to a ledge and he manages to grab out onto the broken
edge of the doorway he spotted from below. With animal noises echoing
behind him he moves in among a litter of scattered book pages to the
ruined corridor beyond.
Vegetation has broken through, but by decoration and architecture this
might once have been some place of worship, secret if not sacred. He
emerges to a balcony high above the ground in a vast subterranean
chamber, wind whistling in the cavernous space as cascades of water
tumble from rocky waterfalls all around. Before him is an enormous square
rock platform, balanced on a slender base from the tempestuous sea far
below. He jumps the long distance down and runs out over its smooth
marbled top. Fissures run over the curiously decorated surface. Was this
some place of ritual? He could not guess. Ahead of him, built into the
rock face of the cavern, he sees various high doorways, lit with brands.
As he makes his way across, Silhouettes materialize in his path, in
company of packs of grunting, growling Scavengers. There can be little
profit from pointless combat and the way ahead is clear. The Prince runs
quickly off the far edge of the arena platform to the largest doorway
ahead.
"One step closer, Prince," comes a sinister voice, "two steps back."
His is the proper course. Through open doors on the balcony ahead he sees
a high arched gateway of ornate metal bars. Through these a figure, its
back to him. Though startled at first, he sees this is but a statue. To
one side a door is partly open. He rolls beneath.
Across a shallow pit of spikes, the Prince draws his sword as if by
instinct. Skittering footsteps warn of Scavengers, easily dodged as he
spots a floor switch in dim light of the passage ahead. He runs to it,
slashes aside a snapping beast and activates the switch, which brings
clattering from a wall ahead a short metal grille. He senses it will not
long be in place, and scans the way beyond quickly. A broken column
projects downward from a stone arch within reach of a wall run, and in
moments he runs, jumps, and clings to it.
He is in a dank stone chamber of barred cells and arches. He cannot see
its bottom, mist rising far below. Above can be seen lit alcoves, and
perhaps a wall switch or two. He scooches up the column as far as he can
and jumps backwards to a wall, beginning then a swift chimney ascent to
land atop the narrow edge of the stone arch. He balances carefully to its
end. He looks around, and although there is a prominent wall switch to
one side there seems no easy route away from it. A leap to a pole and a
swing off it activates the switch, at which a reactive leap back sees him
return to the arch top via the pole once more. The Prince has confidence
in his plan of progression, there being anyway no obvious alternative.
The switch has released another metal grille, and he balances his way
swiftly to jump to it, and hurriedly off to a wall pole. This faces a
wall switch with a second pole above, and by wondrous acrobatics he
swings up and on to yet another wall grille, and ahead around the high
wall to a pole, off and a rebound from a wall to a curtain, where all in
a blur he slides its length, spinning off before its end, to solid ground
of a high rock platform.
No rest here, as at once the Prince is attacked by vicious Scavengers,
and only with peace won by his sword can he consider the way ahead. One
stone wall looks cracked and ready to be broken through. A blow from his
sword and the center blocks are smashed away. Exposed behind is a
passage, onward and down across a narrow pit of spikes.
Through an arch he finds himself once again overlooking the massive
squared platform. Wind whistles about the castle walls in this vast
cavern, daylight shafts through the near covered rock ceiling high above.
To the distance and all around, waterfalls cascade to an ocean inlet far
below. The platform where he stands faces a cranny to one side. A daring
run and he is around a wall pillar above the tall arched doorway where he
last entered. Another platform and low arch door mirrors the one he just
left. With a few deft shimmy-shuffles he is in.
Another passage leads over a gap to a dead end, where a wide hole admits
a hanging red banner. He drops to the floor of a narrow chamber below.
Beside him is a closed gate but there is no other exit. Behind him, on a
pedestal in an eerie shaft of light from high above, is the statue of a
sitting figure he had seen through bars behind. There seems something
very odd about it. He approaches warily.
The figure is not a statue but a mummified corpse in a supplicant pose.
It wears a sculpted mask. The Prince removes the artifact from its
ghastly setting, and examines it. There is curious writing on its surface
inside. He squints close to read. In an involuntarily movement the mask
is placed to his face. At once he is gripped by a burst of light from
within. Perspective is distorted and the very ground shakes. He is borne
aloft, in twisted agonized spasms as he screams and gargles
uncontrollably, hands clutched to his throat, torn by the force raging
through him. Sinews snake and wrap around his body, held fast in the beam
of light from above as debris clatters about. After a moment of stillness
the light bursts, and his body is transformed as he is cast down.
He pants for breath and runs a hand to his face, still behind the mask
but now part of it. His voice rasps in the hollow confines as he staggers
to his senses.
"I--I have become that thing!"
He raises his head. Behind the mask his eyes burn with brilliant blue
light. He shakes his fists to the skies. Realization dawns.
"It wasn't trying to kill me but warn me! Warn me of Kaileena's betrayal
and of my own role in creating the Sands."
If it is his fate to be the strange creature, then just as surely he will
face the final encounter with the Dahaka. He thought then that the
relentless guardian of the Timeline had learned to find him in the past,
yet at that encounter it sought to remove the other where it did not
belong.
"And in the end it died," he realizes with grim finality, then corrects
himself. "I died!"
He feels his face.
"The mask is part of me now, and if the Maharajah's tale is true it will
remain this way until my other self perishes. Only then can I remove the
mask."
----------------------------------------------
YOU ARE
T H E S A N D W R A I T H
Sands of Time regenerate
but your life slowly fades away.
----------------------------------------------
He must return to the Central Access Hall, there to confront his other
self in the face of the Dahaka.
Through the now open gate Scavenger dogs come prowling. They snarl and
snap, but the Sand Wraith brushes past to run up off a wall to spring
back to a bar. A swing and an angled jump off a wall has him clinging to
a slender column. He adjusts his direction to grab off to a crack in one
wall. A shimmy-drop, shimmy-drop, brings him to a ledge at the foot of a
massive wooden door but no way through. With careful positioning he jumps
behind to a narrow jetty made of stone. Dust falls but it holds his
weight. Traps trigger to action, but with unlimited power to slow Time at
his disposal the Wraith passes them easily as no mere mortal could.
He comes to a long narrow pit, mist rising from its depths. To one side,
a fast spinning saw blade that would cut to pieces any man foolish enough
to try passing, despite what acrobatics he may. The Wraith slows Time to
a crawl as the rasping blade approaches so he can climb on to a jetty and
spring over to another midway along, and pass safely by. He hauls up and
jumps swiftly to another stone beam at the end of the pit, and shuffles
aside beneath a stuck blade so that he can clamber out to a last passage.
Opposing pairs of twin sweeping sword blades block normal access. Too low
to roll under, but the Time powers are invaluable in gaining the precious
seconds he needs to run by, and at the passage end he discovers a portal
chamber.
-- A SECOND CHANCE ------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------
Activate portal to Past
-----------------------
----------------------------------------------
YOU GAIN
C Y C L O N E O F F A T E
This power lets you do the strongest ground
attack hurting several enemies
simultaneously. Use this power when the
Prince is surrounded by enemies.
----------------------------------------------
The Sand Wraith is released from the force of the Time portal and turns
to his task.
"Up until now I have allowed the Dahaka to control me, to fill me with
fear. Fear of my capture, my destruction, the loss of my family and
friends. But now the creature fills me with rage! I will destroy Kaileena
in the Present, and I will be free!"
Determined, he ducked easily past the sword blades sweeping beyond the
portal door. The rasping saw blades were now both operational, slicing
fast the length of the narrow bottomless pit. As the pair moved away, he
slowed Time, allowing him to balance to the wall on the beam and jump to
hang off one small jetty halfway along the passage. As Time reverted its
course the blades swept back, now safely overhead, and the Wraith slowed
Time once more as he scrambled up and leaped for the other small jetty
near the passage door. A simple jump to the opposite wall kept him clear
of the blades on their return and he shimmied off a crack in the wall to
the doorway, and went through.
A traveling spike log blocked the way. He dropped to the edge of a long
pit as the log passed overhead and, with the use of his Time powers,
climbed up to a high ledge. On the opposite wall were two more slicing
saw blades, one over the other with a ledge in between. When the higher
blade passed away he jumped to the ledge and caught his footing. As the
lower blade moved away under him, the Wraith slowed Time once again and
dropped to grab the ledge. He followed it under as the upper blade
returned. Climbing again when it safely passed by, he moved quickly to
the far edge of the pit and dropped safely down to the passage floor.
The passage was misty, and although he moved fast he did not act in
haste. Under logs and across a pit he came to a water fountain, where he
gratefully snatched a drink. He was otherwise powerless to prevent his
life slowly ebbing away. He found he was again at the entrance archway
leading from the vast cavern with its massive smooth platform. He looked
through the bars where he first saw the strange mummified corpse on its
pedestal, now empty. He was in a Past before the creation of the Sands of
Time, and that unfortunate man had not yet met his fate. It was the
Prince of Persia who had taken on the Mask's curse.
The Sand Wraith jumped out to the platform below. He panted hard and
stepped out cautiously. There was no sign of any of the creatures that
confronted him before. He cocked an ear suddenly. From the mists he heard
a curious sound. A rhythmic beat, like the beating of wings.
Gigantic wings.
He rolled with a cry as a huge demon bird swooped on him practically
defenseless at the center of the platform. This was a beast in the form
of an eagle with the body of a lion, the mythical Griffin whose statue he
had seen at intervals about the island. If this was a place of worship
here was its object, no mythical creature but enormous, taloned, and only
too real. The beast screeched and circled, then swept down in a fury,
sending him flying. It descended to the platform and advanced.
The Wraith invoked his Time powers to hold it at bay so he could get
close to somehow do damage. Remembering his success with the Brute, he
decided to use its size against it. He rolled nimbly behind and slashed
at its haunches. Blood sprayed in spurts on each blow, and the creature
screamed furiously, trying to step high to stop the pest from its attack.
He moved to match its lumbering turn, ready to run from its sweeping
claws or swishing tail, keeping up his assault all the while. The beast
bounded forward but he chased after and kept slashing. It took to the
air, circling and rushing down at him with a draft of wind that knocked
him to the ground. He somersaulted and rolled as it flew past to attack,
and on one run was swept to the very edge of the platform, where he clung
above the drop. Though the Griffin swooped again and again it seemed he
was safe there for a moment. The beast settled to ground, and as the
Wraith ran to resume his attack, it stamped one massive paw with a blast
that knocked him off his feet. He slowed Time and got behind it, beyond
reach of its sweeps and slashes, and set to with his blade once again.
The cycle resumed and the Wraith became weary but kept up the assault.
When close to exhaustion he gave a final blow and the Griffin reeled back
in a spray of blood.
It took to the air in a fury, laying trails of fire as it flew crazily
over the platform. With a last scream it collapsed in flames, shrieking
and spiraling to the ground. It knocked down as it did so a large block
of stone from one entrance.
This served as an intermediate step to a ledge previously out of reach.
It faced a large door, where as the Prince he had first dropped to this
platform arena. It was now solid and impassible. To one side the Prince
noticed a niche along the middle of a door pillar. He jumped up and
shimmied round to grab another niche on a block alongside. His arduous
upward chimney maneuver served him well as he ascended to a higher
platform. Here was a door tight shut. As he had over the arched doorway
opposite, he ran out to a recess over the central door and shimmied
around to a doorway on the other side.
A chunk of broken platform looked down over a large room partly hewn from
craggy rock. Water vapor billowed from its depths. By a bold wall run he
leaped backwards to swing from a wall bar to a hanging curtain. Slicing
down this he saw another bar behind and leaped at the last crucial
moment. Without pause he continued on to a shorter hanging drape, off
which he fell lightly to a ledge. Inside a doorway, twin sword blades
cycled viciously towards him across a gap. Liberal use of his Time powers
saw him across, and up ledges between saw blade and rolling log. At a
turn a stationary spiked log stood in his way. It took only a moment of
thought to align with a wall pilaster, run up off it and jump back to
clear the spinning log. At the passage end he came quite unexpectedly to
daylight, and a not unwelcome return to the Garden Waterworks. He knew
his direction back to the Central Hall from there.
He balanced quickly on the top edge of stout trellis, and by a few nimble
leaps landed safe on the wide sluice feeding the moat aqueduct leading
from the gardens to the Mechanical Tower. He had noticed this as a path
from the other side of a barred gate to the garden. A foot pressure
switch opened this in a flash and he followed the pathway formed by the
sluice up to where he had previously activated the central capstan.
Keepers waited here, and no doubt Chameleons would join soon if he cared
to engage. He felt in need of refreshment and made haste inside where he
remembered a basin.
He remembered too how to run past scything saw blades, both inside and
out. By way of the long ladder down he ran on to an open door and a brief
encounter with two guards. Similarly, activation of the slow falling door
and return past more Keepers to the central platform above the Garden
Hall taxed him but little.
He well knew his path from here - the Crow Master stood ready to
challenge him at the middle platform - but by an unexplained instinct the
Sand Wraith struck out on a different course. Using the wall switch to
bring out the block section on this central platform, he made his way
across ledges and ladders down to the garden. Though Keepers waited here
he did not linger, and made his way through the plank passage of birdsong
and streaming light, which he remembered led directly to the Central
Hall. He ran swiftly to climb out and roll under rotating drum blades.
Raiders were swatted like flies, and he stepped to the passage end.
He had arrived back at the Central Access Hall but the column blocks were
not favorably arranged and there was no way down to the platform from his
high doorway. The Sand Wraith turned to retrace his steps. Footsteps
below made him turn suddenly.
The Empress walked slowly from the direction of the Hourglass Chamber.
"Too soon..." she murmured.
Was she already planning her betrayal, to give him her cursed sword at
this very place? More footsteps, and Shahdee, the girl in black, came to
her mistress.
"His ship approaches," she informed her. "It is just as the Timeline
foretold. I am sorry, Empress."
"You have done as I said?"
"The crew is assembled and the ship is ready."
"Then go now. I have activated the Island's portals. You will travel to
his time, engage him at sea and kill him. Kill them all!"
Shahdee made an extravagant bow. "As you wish."
"I do not appreciate your tone."
"You know you cannot change the Timeline," Shahdee gestured. "You cannot
escape your fate. Yet you send me on this doomed mission."
"If you fail and he reaches the island, you will find death," the Empress
promised. "At my hands. Now, go!"
The Sand Wraith looked down on the drama.
"It's odd," he reflected. "Kaileena and I are not so different. Each
hoping to change our fate."
He turned once more to find his way to the Throne Room, a bitter resolve
in him now.
"A shame that one of us will have to die."
Since there was no way down from his high doorway, he returned to the
Garden Hall and ascended the ladder at its entrance. The Crow Master made
reappearance at each platform to the highest but was easily repulsed. By
a wall run and swing off a pole the Wraith returned to the central
platform. Keepers patrolled to little effect. He made use of a rope at
the middle division to run over to a platform on which the Crow Master
attempted to deny him but was sent screeching at first stroke of his
sword. The Wraith dropped down ladders to a stone passage. More sentries
hurried to attack.
"Do as you are told and kill him!"
The first was smashed to yellow dust at a single blow.
"The undefeated army falls," groaned the second, moments before being
cleaved in two.
At a twisting corner was a Time portal, still active.
-- THE PATH OF THE SANDWRAITH -------------------------------------------
-----------------
Portal to Present
-----------------
As he winds back along the moss-strewn passage, the Wraith reminds
himself of his urgent mission.
"I must find my way back to the Throne Room."
Without warning, tentacles lash up from the ground before him. The Dahaka
suddenly appears. The Wraith grasps the short ladder at the wall in front
and tries desperately to climb. The Dahaka intercepts and snatches him
down, smashes him into a wall and hurls him through a wooden door. He is
cast into a deep well pit. Plank struts break his fall but wind him as he
collapses to a shallow pool. At least he is far below the reach of the
Dahaka, growling at the mouth of the pit.
With nearly all his energy knocked from him by the fall, the Wraith
drinks lustily from knee-deep water, which runs down every wall to a
single exit. Along a dank passage spiked rolling logs and rotating
blades are taken at a tumble as the Wraith hurries to find his way.
Across a shallow spike pit a Blade Dancer waits.
"You don't honestly believe you can defeat me?" she sneers.
A determined wall run and slash as he sweeps past is his answer.
"How?" she wails, "How can this have happened!"
Through a low arched doorway beyond, a group of Raiders stand unaware of
his approach. The first is taken before he can act.
"Help me with this," comes a shout as the rest crowd around. "Alert the
others."
As many as there are, each falls with a shriek. He stands alone on a
broken platform at a corner of a familiar room. Here, as the Prince, he
had first encountered the Dahaka. He notices that the wall high on one
side where there is a barred opening is yet undamaged, which means that
though the beast hunts him still, it has not passed here at this point in
time. He is ahead of the Prince. He runs out on a wall to a rope and
swings easily to a broken platform in another corner. He uses a hanging
red curtain to descend to a raised platform over which he has passed more
than once. It is of little concern whether wretched enemies appear on the
platform below or not, the Wraith makes his way with a chimney ascent to
the broken pillar rim where he tracked the Dahaka through the hole it
made. This time he continues around the pillar to a decorative beam, hung
with vegetation, and climbs up. Water drips from the cracked ceiling
above.
As he edges along the beam, a Blade Dancer drops swiftly to confront him.
He readies his weapon and stands his ground.
"I'll not give you the satisfaction of seeing me fall," the creature
vows.
Oh, I think you will.
She does.
On another high pillar top is a ledge to a crack, where by a backwards
leap the Wraith swings via a gnarled branch to a wall pilaster. He edges
carefully around a decorative edged niche to leap off at a high platform.
Here stands a masonry block. This is where he ducked out of sight on
first appearance of the Dahaka. He was very close to a portal, and a way
to negotiate the devastation of the Fortress at Present to the Throne
Room in the Past.
It takes some effort to spring upwards from the block in a chimney ascent
to the short chamber above, where a closely-timed wall switch opens the
door from this side. The Wraith hurries through to the passage beyond,
and soon makes his way up ledges and blocks, past spiked poles and tile
traps, through a curtain of water to the sanctuary of a portal.
--------------
Portal to Past
--------------
The spiked poles were configured a little differently, but patience and
timing took him safely between, as they did with the run across walls to
ropes past sliding saw blades at the passage turn. Dropping down a series
of ledges brought him to the edge of a small round chamber, which he
descended by dropping off wall bars across its center. Things looked
familiar as he emerged to a vast ornate room.
He had returned to the Sacrificial Altar. The walkways were intact, which
meant that the destruction on the death of Shahdee had not yet occurred.
At this grim recollection, Blade Dancers swooped from above to surround
him.
"You have no place on this island," one advised. "You have two choices -
run, or die!"
As when he was last offered, he made a third choice, blocked their attack
and unleashed the devastating Cyclone of Fate. At the command of his
Amulet, a haze of energy swept from him in a ring, which burst out and
seared the surrounding enemies to dust.
"Tell me when you're going to be ready to fight for real," sneered a
survivor. He duly dealt death with his sword.
He ran on down a flight of steps from a high bridge to the wall walkway,
where he took refreshment at a water basin. To one side he found a floor
switch, which activated a drawbridge, sliding from a wall to a now open
gate at one side. As he made his way to it, the Wraith heard running
footsteps far below. He looked down, as Shahdee and the Empress acted out
their confrontation not long after his arrival on the Island of Time. He
could not then have known the true significance of this encounter.
"I tried my best Empress," Shahdee explained. "He was too strong a
fighter."
"He reached the Island?"
"Worse, he followed me through a portal. He is here, now, in our time."
The Empress showed her rage in striking her subject to the ground.
"How dare you stand before me and admit failure! You should have DIED to
protect me!"
"I'll not give my life for this foolishness," replied Shahdee. "If you
want to try to change the Timeline, you can do it yourself!"
She flung herself at the Empress. They locked together.
"After everything I've done," spat Kaileena. "How dare you!"
Unseen high above, the Wraith jumped to the slowly retracting platform.
"I already know how this ends," he thought ruefully.
He saw himself as the Prince far below. It was indeed another lifetime
away, when he thought he knew everything yet knew so little. How much
more was there to learn? He returned to his task through the doorway, the
heavy gate closing down behind.
Along the passage ahead the Sand Wraith heard the squealing and grinding
of mechanical traps. Across his path a stationary spinning log met by
another, rising and falling. A wall run took him safely between, and more
careful timing took him, via ropes and runs, over a spike pit beyond. He
was fortunate at least that in his cursed state the Prince had unlimited
recourse to the Eye of the Storm, slowing such hazards in his path that
they might more easily be negotiated. As the passage gave out to a
darkened cave, it became more difficult to see the combinations of pits,
saw blades and rotating blades in his path, yet he negotiated all and
came safely to a fountain of water at which he fortified himself. A low
hole in the cave wall at one side admitted bright light.
He emerged to an enclosed platform open to the sky, the battlements of
the Fortress. Here awaited lofty Executioners. As he fought them aside
the Sand Wraith searched about for some way to leave the small space but
saw no door or any means to scale its bloodstained walls. Presently the
swordsmen were joined by a pack of grunting Spike Beasts, which he set
flaming in every direction. As one detonated, it blew out a blocked
doorway, clean to the sheer walls of the cliffs far below. With no end to
the onslaught in the confines of the battlements, the Sand Wraith dropped
through and clung to its edge.
As luck would have it, here hung a banner, down which he released
himself, cutting through the material with his sword. At its bottom edge
he sprang away, flying to the convenience of a horizontal pole off wooden
scaffold close behind. He dropped swiftly to another, sensing that it
would not long hold his weight, and swung off to grab a slender mast
projecting from the rocks below, the last remnant of some ship no doubt
plundered and brought here by the Pirates. These last pitiful timbers
soon cracked and gave way, and he leaped first to another mast, no safer,
and off swiftly to a third. Without pause he flew off to land breathless
on a grassy platform ledge.
Here was no respite. Executioners gathered round.
"Attack him at the same time!"
He held off the closest and tossed another to the seas but saw no profit
in prolonged combat. As acrobatic masked creatures in female form swooped
to join the assault, the Sand Wraith turned to one side, sweeping aside a
clutter of pots, to run up on a wall and back, to the safety of a branch
overhead. From it he swung on to a higher wall, from which he ran out
across the fortress wall to a rope, and onwards to another convenient
banner. At the foot of this, he sprang to branches knotted from the
castle stone, and began an audacious upward chimney climb between close
walls.
At the top, he took refreshment at a shallow stream running off a
waterwheel to one side. Here was another high battlement, bloodstained as
the last. As Spike Beasts and swooping enemies descended about him, the
Sand Wraith ran off to one side and dropped to a ledge. He escaped down
another hanging curtain.
At its foot he made a daring leap out over the raging sea far below to a
series of spars, timber and soon collapsing masts of rotting hulks on the
shore. He came in a blur to a wooden walkway, which crumbled at his first
touch. He ran on, the planks from the cliff face collapsing at his feet,
around a corner and up to a higher walkway, no firmer than the last. He
ran hard at its end and jumped out, where he hung from a sturdy branch
for a few moments to consider his progress and allow his Sands to
regenerate.
There was no alternative but to continue over further collapsing plank
walkways, a spring up off a facing wall bringing him to one last. With no
time to collect himself he ran on and made fast across a wall, where he
was challenged by a female voice.
"You don't honestly believe you can defeat me?"
Perhaps more by luck than good timing the Sand Wraith knocked her from
his path without breaking step. Though it threw him a little, he grasped
a rocky ledge, which seemed at once to tremble and give way. There was
nowhere to run on to, nowhere to grab for safety. As the ground shook
perilously beneath his feet the Wraith faced a cracked rocky wall and
dealt a blow that smashed through to a cave beyond. Salvation.
Or damnation. On the bloodstained floor a skull, and ahead the first sign
of what would surely and inevitably be many lethal traps. At a ledge
beyond a pit waited another hideously perverted travesty of a masked
being in female form.
"I will not fail the Empress," she promised.
With the encounter outside the cave passage still fresh in his mind, and
having regard to fast slicing saw blades at one side, and judging the
likelihood that any rash challenge whilst engaged in a long run at the
cave wall would like as not send him tumbling to the spike pit below, the
Sand Wraith tossed a weapon instead and cut her in two.
Safe at the other side, a serried rank of saw blades rose and fell at one
side of a likely chimney ascent. The Eye of the Storm power slowed their
rate such that he sprang safely above and on up to a higher passage. More
time powers were needed to pass on narrow ledges through fast scything
blades, bloodstains on walls mute testament to those many who had tried
this route and failed.
The Sand Wraith emerged safe into a lit room, where he took at once the
opportunity to arm himself fully by levering an axe from a pillar where
it lodged. He turned suddenly to see himself as the Prince in a barred
room beyond, gazing with suspicion at his undoubtedly sinister
appearance. Creeping stealthily behind the unwary Prince came an
assassin, eyes glowing with hateful intent. The Sand Wraith in an instant
cast his axe, spinning swift through the air close by the Prince. Though
he had believed it an imperfect attempt to harm him, the throw was inch
perfect. The axe planted solid in the creeping enemy's skull, consigning
it in that instant to dust.
"I had saved my own life," he realized, "and I did not even know it."
With the least pause for reflection the Sand Wraith ran off to his
purpose, leaving the Prince safe behind to continue on his. Fate would
have them meet again. The Wraith had now to find a way to the Throne
Room. Ahead rising tall from roughly hewn rock were a pair of slender
columns, on which he swung to a doorway.
-- MIRRORED FATES -------------------------------------------------------
A passage of spiked logs and a pit led to a small chamber packed with
Raiders. Taking no chance, the Wraith held off a moment and summoned
again the Cyclone of Fate. The room darkened as a mighty ring of fiery
energy gathered about him and burst across the confined space, blasting
all but himself to oblivion. Where the passage continued beyond, a series
of sudden sprouting spike tiles and blade traps led to a shaft of buzzing
saw blades. He dropped down carefully into it, descending between each
blade at a series of ledges. The passage continued on at its foot, with
spiked logs, a pit, saw blades, and tile traps all to be negotiated,
until he saw ahead at the passage end an open doorway tinged with green
murky light beyond.
He found a chamber of pillars and platforms, the brilliant glow of fiery
liquid blazing at a course along its floor. Rail tracks for small
machinery ran around the room, evidently a foundry of some description.
At the far end a possible exit, high off the ground faced by a small
platform, out of reach from the ground. A nearby contraption of steel
bars and ironwork gave him the beginning of an idea.
"If I cannot reach the platform, perhaps I can bring the platform to me!"
Dodging enemies that came at him from dark corners, the Wraith hurried up
a ladder to one of the stone platforms deep inside the room. This
platform, as each of the others, had on it a metal column with a handle
projecting from its base. As the Prince turned this, short sections of
metal pipe mounted at the top of each column rotated to suit. He could
see that these sections might be turned in this manner to meet one
another, thus forming a conduit, although for a purpose not immediately
apparent. At the far end of the room, a thin glowing stream of molten
liquid cascaded from above. He made his way across the platforms to
investigate, dodging with a wall run as he did so a pair of slow spinning
wall blades. He could avoid unnecessary injury; though the room was hot
he found yet no refreshment.
The stream of molten liquid poured forth from fixed pipework near the
door where he had entered. From above the column by which he stood, it
flowed through one angled section of pipe to spill to the floor below. He
turned the handle at the base of this column and the right-angled pipe on
top cranked around, leaving the liquid to pour short, then meeting the
flow again, but this time sending it across the room to another pipe over
the adjacent platform. Still the molten stream poured uselessly to the
ground. With the makings of a plan, the Wraith balanced his way across a
narrow beam to that other platform, from it perhaps to determine where
the flow might next be directed. There was no time to waste.
"Come on, come on," he reasoned. "One of these levers should do it."
The handle turned a similar right-angled pipe section, this time
redirecting the flow towards the platform with the ladder. He made his
way back over, using wall poles past more spinning saw blades. Eagerly he
rotated the handle on the next metal column, and noted that this lever
operated two sections of pipe simultaneously. As design would have it,
the sections met perfectly, and at once the molten liquid oozed and
bubbled along a full course of pipework, from one end of the room to the
other. It flowed steadily along the metal channel the Prince had formed,
spewing from its open end into the contraption he had noted, to a
crucible below. This groaned and tilted with the sudden weight, then
spilled over to another crucible beneath, and from that the white-hot
liquid splashed over onto the floor. A molten pool spread wide and caught
alight. Flames licked the metal stanchions of the nearby platform, which
soon toppled and crashed as its legs deformed under intense heat. The
Wraith had indeed brought the platform to him; the collapsed rubble now
formed a means of access to the gap high in the wall above. As flames
extinguished, he wasted no time descending to the floor to climb the pile
of rubble and reach this ingeniously worked exit.
Inside the open gap he found a basin at which to wash away the hot taste
of the foundry air. He set off down a passage of traps. As before,
negotiated with patience and timing. He came presently to a capstan
lever, which swapped sections of wall, with fresh traps in a new passage
beyond.
He had first to climb a near wall to a ledge, and from it mount a slender
beam. Balancing to its end, a careful jump between fast rising and
falling spiked logs brought him onto another. He dropped to a stone
ledge, and between ranks of slow sliding saw blades to the ground some
distance below. Faced by a dead end at a turn, with retracting sword
blades in his path even so, there appeared no obvious route onward. Yet
he noticed up above there were other slender stone beams. He timed a run
between appearances of the blades, directly ahead to the wall of the dead
end, and jumped backwards and up at its very center, clutching barely
onto the point of the beam. A high exit lay over the wall opposite.
He hopped down. Here was a small chamber of stone alcoves bearing locked
doors of bars and grilles. Swinging overhead was a metal cage amid rusted
chains. These could only be instruments of torture. With some misgivings
he recognized the environs of the prison through which he had passed some
time before, soon confirmed as he dropped from a doorway in one wall down
a long hanging banner to the floor below.
He was back in the balcony area where he had uncovered a door to a secret
passage. Three Executioners now hurried to stop the intruder.
"Finish him," one harsh command. "Finish him at once!"
He dealt with them as his purpose required. At one end of the balcony an
open doorway led him as before to a somewhat arduous climb of several
stories via slender stone beams and ledges to a stone passage that he
recalled led to Kaileena's library. He took refreshment at a basin,
grimly certain of the challenge sure to be faced in that place. He jumped
and climbed as before a series of beams to a flight of steps where he was
roused by a hollow command.
"Attack him first, soften him up for me. I will finish him after."
The doorway at the top of the stairs was walled up, and the Sand Wraith
judged he must be ahead of the Prince on his path, since he found it open
then. Their destinies were already linked it seemed. His powerful sword
served him well. As he stood before the doorway to smash through, masked
Assassins dropped down to do their leader's bidding. Especially with
unlimited ability to slow Time, such combat as there was bothered him
little. In the room beyond, the wall sections had not yet been switched
and two Executioners waited in the enclosed space.
"You should never have come to our island," said one.
Difficult to deny, since every living thing on it wanted him dead.
These servants of the Empress proved wearisome, yet he required some
peace to crank the capstans and the lever that eventually opened the
doorway to the upper levels of the library room.
At the end of the linked walkway above he found the secret bookshelves
ready retracted, and swiftly made his way along beams, poles, and ledges
as he had done before to reach the octagonal tops of the rooms at high
level. As he clung and shuffled along one ledge the room shook, as with a
tremendous crash the section of wall above his head was blown out.
The Dahaka stood framed in the smashed open space.
"Where is he..?"
The beast clearly had little respect for knowledge or learning.
As he clung from the ledge beneath his relentless pursuer, the Wraith
found his progress impeded at its fractured end. Since the Dahaka had
broken a hole through the wall, the Wraith now saw that he had an
alternative exit from the library, with the single concern that the
Dahaka seemed settled on guarding it. He made his way back a little and
upward this time, crossing to a wooden transom directly above the
fearsome beast. With burning eyes scanning the room beneath, it seemed
unaware of the Sand Wraith close above its head. On high rafters he
jumped sure-footed to ledges in one wall, and dropped swiftly down. At
this the Dahaka turned its attention. The Sand Wraith was ready and
determined.
"Just try and catch me!"
He set off at a run, across gaps in the floor down a passage ahead. He
sprang back off a wall run, grabbed on to an edge, clambered swiftly up
steps. The feet of the wrathful creature thundered as it breathed hard
down his neck. Tendrils probed through walls in his path, he dare not
even pause for a second lest he be snatched up in their grip. A wall bar
ahead gave course to his flight and feet scrabbled at a wall up ahead as
he swung hastily into a narrow doorway and dropped down beyond. No such
acrobatics for the destructive beast at his heels; the Dahaka crashed
through solid stone to lumber close behind as the Wraith ran on to a
stone walkway. The weight proved too much and stone flags crumbled and
fell. The Wraith jumped forward and clung to an edge of rock. With a
furious roar the Dahaka was cast downward to a bottomless abyss. One
tendril snaked up to snatch for its quarry but the Wraith lashed out
swiftly with his sword, severing the threat and consigning the Dahaka to
the depths. He yelled a heartfelt goodbye.
With breath returning, he climbed wearily up and peered ahead into a
cave, tinged with an eerie blue light. At least here was a basin to
recover his strength. He ran on into the cave passage. Fog swirled about
his feet, partly obscuring a perilous drop. Safe across, he swept his
sword uselessly in front.
"I can barely see through this," he thought aloud. "Best I watch my back.
Who knows what's lurking in the mist?"
His fears were soon answered as howling beasts descended the wet rocky
walls round about. He fought those he could see, winning space to run on
down the passage with its mystical blue light. From the haze of the fog
all around came various enemies, some with which he was all too familiar.
"You have two choices," commanded a near-invisible Chameleon, "Run or
die!"
In the circumstances, with savage growls of hideous beasts closing in, he
decided to run.
"Just like your own shadow, Prince," came the hissed threat of a
Silhouette, "you'll never be free of me."
He fought where he must and slipped past the rest in the fog. All of a
sudden he came to a precipice, and though he slipped at its edge, clung
on.
"I can't see a damn thing! Best I watch my step down here."
He descended ledges in the sheer cliff wall to a narrow platform, where
he was beset once again by devil dogs and Chameleons. He ran swiftly
along the cliff wall, sweeping one clinging beast from his way, before
jumping off to a rock path. Words mocked his departure.
"The Empress will be pleased at my success."
The path ended briefly in a precipice. Loose stone crumbled from the high
walls. In the still swirling fog the Sand Wraith looked up, where strange
designs had been carved in the rock face to each side. He spotted a ledge
and made a chimney ascent to it, and on to another. He hauled up onto a
barrow path.
Intense blue light glowed from lanterns in the distant fog. He could
nearly make out a door built into the rock at a platform nearby. He made
a perilous leap to it.
"Careful," he cautioned himself, "careful."
He paced gingerly forward. He noticed the familiar symbol on the heavily
barred gate that blocked the doorway.
"That door," he reasoned, "the switch to open it has to be around here
somewhere. If only I could see through this fog."
Yet he could hear well enough. The sound of a dozen scrabbling clawed
feet as demon beasts gathered around him, malevolent yellow eyes aglow.
Like a pack of dogs they came scavenging from the gloom.
The Wraith drew his sword and fought back those that came nearest, and
made his way along a narrow path nearly lost in the fog. Faint traces of
brilliant blue light cut through at points on the turns, guiding him
somewhat along the treacherous route. At the path end he saw another, too
far out of reach, but judged he could execute a wall run to cling to a
thick stalactite, which mercifully held as he turned to swing off to
another and on to the far pathway. Here beside strange glowing globules
of phosphorescent light lay a floor switch. He was as certain as could be
that this switch opened the door to somehow leave these Mystic Caves. He
stepped confidently upon the switch, and then slowed Time as he raced for
the door before he sensed it must close. Directly ahead he spotted a
series of dangling stalactites, and set off in a steady rhythm along
them, flinging himself one to the next, passing easily above the maws of
the slavering beasts on the pathway below, until he fell safely in front
of the open gate. He rolled through the doorway a moment before it slid
shut.
Fog swirled through the small chamber beyond. The Wraith stumbled at the
edge of a shallow pit. At its floor was a switch, and climbing out, he
found a small gate had been opened, though for the shortest time.
Beyond it, growling Scavengers obstructed a narrow stone walkway. A
Chameleon dropped down close beside him.
"Tell me when you're going to be ready to fight for real."
He had other matters to attend. The fog was thick as ever, and as he made
his way hastily the Wraith nearly had his feet cut off by twin saw blades
in his path. Two more lay close behind, and he stepped cautiously, not
too much distracted by daggers flung at him by a raging Silhouette a
little beyond. As the Scavengers came padding behind, the Wraith felt
some satisfaction that they too blundered into the blades and disappeared
to yellow dust with a howl. The Wraith hurried on, following each twist
of the path until at last the fog cleared.
He ran down between rocky walls, deeper into the caves, until he came to
a sheer edge. He could see a rock ledge further ahead, and could discern
a light area worn across the cave edge out towards it, no doubt the
result of the scrabbling claws of the infernal Scavengers that roamed
this place. He followed their path, and by a series of ledges clung,
jumped, and shimmied his way to a point where the path continued on.
Downward again, he ran out on other sections worn by clawed feet until he
arrived at a hole broken through a wall that had been shaped by (near)
human hands.
He emerged at last from the Mystic Caves and took sustenance at a
fountain. He headed into a bright passage of wooden planks. A wide pit
stood in his way, water pouring from spouts to a pool at its bottom. He
ran out to grab a hanging rope, which he climbed to jump to an opposite
niche. Masonry dust showered at every move as he shuffled along the
slender gap to hang opposite a second rope further along. He dropped to
its end to gain enough of an arc to swing, run, and jump back to a narrow
ledge, where he held firm and ran off down wooden steps. He was aware of
a familiar mechanical clanking and splashing of water.
He had returned to the fireplace room. On that occasion he had found open
the doorway in the corner, which at present was barred. On it, a familiar
symbol. If memory served, there was a matching symbol at the end of the
wooden walkway outside, by a hanging lever. As the Prince he had
discovered the lever but found it apparently useless, because as the
Wraith he had operated it shortly before to pass through this gate.
He jumped to the plank walkway where a growling Spike Beast hindered
progress slightly. With the way clear, he ran to its end to use the
hanging lever, which surely opened the barred gate in the fireplace room.
As he ran back to find out, the Sand Wraith saw, among the water spouts
and wooden machinery below, his former self as the Prince. He could never
have imagined the strange creature's purpose when he yelled up to it.
"What do you want from me?"
The Sand Wraith ran quickly out of sight, and then looked discreetly out.
"My 'other' self still works to activate the towers. There is ample time
to return to the Throne Room and await the opening of the door."
This plan was interrupted by the arrival of Brute. The creature snatched
the Sand Wraith in one giant fist, and threw him hard through a plank
partition to an alcove in a wall. He was knocked cold. When he roused
himself he heard a clanking noise through the room beyond.
"The towers," he realized. "I -- HE has activated them. Am I too late?"
He jumped down from the alcove. The Brute was nowhere to be seen. He must
hurry to his purpose.
"I have come too far to fail!"
His other self had passed through the now open door out to the Mechanical
Pit, and the Sand Wraith trailed in his wake. He must stop him before he
got to the Throne Room or his mistake in killing the Empress would be
repeated.
He made his way onto the watercourse, ducking under the paddles through
the moat. The hanging lever at the halfway point was useless now, the
door on the far platform firmly shut after the Prince had passed. The
Wraith must find another route, down among the huge clanking gears and
cascading waters of the wooden machinery. As his other self had done, the
Wraith swung away from the watercourse on poles to a high platform ledge,
but he now dropped off the side, sliding down a red curtain.
Inattentive Keepers were brushed aside on the rickety wooden walkway
below, and the Wraith turned to a slow spinning waterwheel and more
hapless sentries on the walkway beyond. Spike Beasts descended the walls
to impede him. He simply ran past and dropped down to a platform below.
At this spot at one time he had activated a wall switch, but now he
ascended wooden stairs beside. Halfway up stood a basin.
-- THE RACE TO THE THRONE -----------------------------------------------
At the top of the stairs, a wall switch slid a door briefly open, and the
Wraith hurried through. On past a variety of spinning log traps, wall
pounders, and rotating blades, until he dropped out to the room with the
huge spinning wooden wheel. Via beams, ledges, trapdoors and ladders he
worked down the tiers of the central platform, to bound once more through
the sails of the wheel. The route out he knew well, and was little
surprised at the reappearance of Brute in its customary haunt. This time
he had a little score to settle, and for its rude attack on his person
the Sand Wraith battered the giant beast to its knees in short order and
caved its skull in. He climbed the wooden ledges and made fast upstairs
through a well-trodden passage of wall pounders, ladders, and saw blades.
Soon he slowed Time to pass through the falling gate. Past rotating
blades he emerged once again in the vast Access Hall.
"Tell me I am not too late!"
He jumped down to the central platform and saw his fate unroll as the
Prince ran away.
"All is happening as before," he realized. Yet he knew he held the power
to alter his course. "No! I must not let him pass."
He deliberately blocked his former self, which helpless figure then fell
to the mercy of the Dahaka. Its tentacles snaked out, and where in his
previous course had taken the Sand Wraith as its prey, now snatched up
the Prince and bore him to the depths. The Sand Wraith knew his painful
decision served a higher cause.
"I'm sorry."
With the death of his former self the curse became lifted from the Sand
Wraith.
"The Mask," he gasped with relief, "It's loose!"
He reached to prize it off. In a flash of dazzling light the mysterious
unholy object came away from his face, freeing his body from its strange
ethereal form. With the death of a Prince he became the Prince again. He
stood ready to repeat the passage of time, but with one vital difference.
-- THE DEATH OF A PRINCE ------------------------------------------------
He hurried to the Hourglass Chamber. The Empress received him as before.
The Prince knew his part.
"Time is running low," he affirmed. "You ready?"
They walked to their destiny in the Throne Room above. She must not
suspect his motive.
"I've been thinking, Kaileena," he said. "There is little for you on this
Island. And there will be less still once I've stood before your
mistress. Come with me to Babylon! You'll have a chance to begin a new
life, free from the evils of this place."
"I am sorry Prince, but I cannot take you up on your offer."
As she walked to the Throne Room, the Prince looked grimly after her.
This time he knew why she could not.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- ENDING 1 [DON'T TAKE SWORD]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Prince strode into the Throne Room. The Empress stood near the door
lever. Wordlessly he mounted the carpeted steps to the throne and picked
up her sculpted swords. She had expected this to play differently.
Kaileena showed doubt as he turned to implore.
"It doesn't have to end this way."
He came down to join her, tossing aside the swords, which clanged to the
floor.
"Come with me," he urged, "into the Present."
"So you can kill me in your own time instead of mine?"
She gave a contemptuous laugh. Turning to her swords, a cloud of sand
whirled at her command and gathered the weapons from the floor. They
swept through the air to her arms. The Prince stared, disappointed but
defiant. He turned and ran up the steps. The Empress began to run up
behind him.
"I am sorry, Prince, but only one of us can cheat Fate today."
She advanced on her prey. The Prince turned quickly, ran to the throne
and jumped up. He drew his weapon and smashed through the wall. His angry
pursuer leaped after him with a cry, and slashed her weapons furiously.
The Prince took her by the shoulders and tried to reason.
"Kaileena... Empress... listen."
She raised her weapons again. The Prince held her wrists.
"No!" she screamed. "You listen: the Timeline has said you will kill me,
but I will change the timeline."
He threw her back, and then ran towards the portal chamber. The vortex
glowed at the eye of the spiral. All was ready. The Prince turned and
felt the Amulet at his chest. Would this work? The Empress lunged towards
him with another cry. He dodged her charge, vaulted over her shoulder,
and wrestled to control her. Holding her arms back he dragged her around
and shoved hard, her face shocked as she was thrown into the eye of the
Time portal.
Her body was seized in the vortex, raised above the ground. Her back
arched, gripped in the powerful force. She seemed to pulse with light,
became transparent, and vanished.
The Prince stood, panting hard. He knew his next step.
-- THE WARRIOR WITHIN ---------------------------------------------------
-----------------
Portal to Present
-----------------
The portal chamber, though active, is dark and decayed. The Prince looks
around but Kaileena is not there. He runs quickly through the curtain of
water and finds the wall to the Throne Room now impassable. To one side,
as before, the entrance to the Sacred Caves. No wild beasts impede him in
this Present, and he runs swiftly up ledges and along walls, hastening to
face the Empress where she might be.
He hauls himself into the ruined passage and sees ahead the dim light of
the cavern arena. Beneath his running feet lie scattered pages, others
soak in dark waters of a pool as he splashes through and shimmies along a
rock niche to climb out. The Prince notices as he runs forward a weapon
rack, which gives up a secondary sword. With his health at its peak, all
tanks fully charged, he is as ready as he can be for the imminent
confrontation. He somersaults in a single acrobatic bound to join her on
the huge open surface of the rock platform. He tries to make her
understand.
"I know what you've seen - what you think you've seen - in the Timeline."
"Then you know I have no choice."
He clenches his fist and speaks intensely.
"There is always a choice, Kaileena."
She readies her weapons with a satisfied smile.
"Then I choose to live, and for you to die!"
Like lightning she launches a furious assault. The Prince staggers back
and collects himself. He must fight to subdue her. He summons at once the
Eye of the Storm to slow her attack, and strikes back. She gasps and
reels but then throws forward her weapons. The Prince hears the clang of
steel as his thrust is blocked.
"Ha ha!" she snorts. "It will take more than a simple sword strike to
penetrate my defenses!"
He rolls sideways to break through from behind. As the effect of slowed
Time wears off he uses the Eye of the Storm again and keeps up his
tactic. Kaileena breaks away suddenly and he reasons once more.
"Don't you see? We can change our fate. This isn't what happened the
first time we fought!"
"The first time..?" She seems shocked.
"That's what I've been trying to tell you," he pants, "if you'd just let
me explain."
They circle each other warily.
"No more words, Prince. If you've only things to say and nothing to show,
then let us finish this."
"I'm sorry," he says firmly.
The Empress raises herself in a powerful force just as she did in her
Throne Room, and here summons slender tornadoes of Sand, which shimmer
and sweep about her at the center of the platform. As one strikes the
Prince it knocks him down with unbelievable force, draining life from his
body. He struggles to his feet and runs, winding a path left and right,
turning sharply as the Sand veers towards him. He tries to attack the
Empress but she is immune, and he is struck once again by a tornado. He
cannot long sustain such hurt, and sets to a run once again. He keeps to
a short circle about the Empress, staying just ahead of each cloud.
Nearly exhausted, he notices one cloud peter out, leaving briefly behind
an intense ball of Sand as residue. Passing close to it, the Prince
absorbs this to his own store in the Amulet. Thankful for this small
mercy, he diverts as the two remaining tornadoes are spent, collecting
from each a fresh store of Sand.
Kaileena descends her energy field and he slows Time at once to resume
his attack. She tries words to cow him.
"I have seen your future, and it does not look good," she advises. "You
shouldn't have come here, you will not leave this island alive."
He blocks her rapid attack, and backs safely away. At any moment she can
vanish and reappear close by, but he stays alert. In a moment he leans
forward and jumps over, striking down hard as he lands. He breaks through
again and again, until once more she gathers her energy and rises on a
force of light. Once more swirling tornadoes pursue him. He stays to a
tight circle, and runs the clouds to exhaustion.
As she descends to meet him again, the Empress unleashes her own ability
to slow Time around him. The Prince now moves too slowly to avoid her
strikes, and must use the Eye of the Storm simply to counter the effect.
He presses the attack once again. Though he catches a few blows in
between, his relentless vaulting assault subdues her.
"I WILL kill you!" she screams.
"I do not want to hurt you, Kaileena, but I cannot allow that to happen."
In her fury the Empress unleashes tornadoes yet again. Yet again the
Prince takes off in a run, circling her on her shimmering cloud. Yet
again the spent winds give up their residue of Sand, and as the Empress
descends to the platform he turns to finish her. With the full force of
his blade he breaks through, sending her reeling. He finally kicks her
aside, yet she raises her weapon and rushes at him, bent on his
destruction. In a furious slash she meets his blade, and is run through.
They lock in a painful embrace.
"I'm sorry," he sighs. "If only it didn't have to end this way."
He wearily withdraws his blade. Kaileena collapses into his arms.
"You have saved yourself it seems, my Prince, but still I become the
Sands," she whispers. "There will be others like the Maharajah, braggarts
and fools who will quest for the Sands and find them."
She clings tight and speaks close with her dying breath.
"My vengeance will be unleashed once more upon your world."
The Empress of Time lies dead on the platform. The Prince hangs his head.
From the fortress comes the sound of destruction as something pounds
against the walls, breaking through. The Prince takes an involuntary step
back. It can only mean one thing.
"No... no, how is this possible?"
As he fears, the Dahaka bursts through the wall and lands with a roar on
the platform.
"The Sands are here in the Present," protests the Prince, "not in the
Hourglass."
Tentacles emit from the Dahaka. The Prince shies away, arm across his
face, but they snake out and wrap Kaileena tightly.
"It is the Sands that should no longer exist in the Timeline," he
realizes. "The Dahaka is doing its job."
The Dahaka holds the body of the Empress of Time on a force above its
head, her body aglow with the Sands. It absorbs her to its chest in a
brilliant light. Its work is done. The Prince sinks to his knees,
exhausted.
"Not only have I saved myself but I have eliminated the Sands of Time."
A shadow falls as the beast advances on him.
"What?" He raises his head defiant. "What do you want?"
The Prince groans hard as the guardian of the Timeline seizes him tight
by the chest and snatches its due from his breastplate.
"The Amulet!" gasps the Prince. "The last relic of the Sands of
Time."
The beast absorbs the Amulet and flickers in intense radiance of light,
vanishing all at once. The Prince stands alone but alive on the scorched
stone of the platform.
"Can it be? I have changed my fate."
A small ship sails to a new dawn. Alone on the deck, the Prince looks to
the east.
"Soon, I will be home."
He sees in his mind's eye a glimpse of a terrible future. He travels to a
place of death and destruction. Laid siege, Babylon is a city on fire.
The words of the Old Man come back to him.
"You cannot change your fate. No man can."
The anguished Prince wonders, "What have I done?"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-- ENDING 2 [TAKE SWORD]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Prince stared after Kaileena as she entered the Throne Room. The
coming confrontation would be painful for them both.
He descended the curved staircase of the Hourglass Chamber to the strange
symbol set into the floor at its foot. All nine circular motifs were
aglow with brilliant white light. At the center, on a shaped pedestal lay
a magnificent sculpted sword. The Prince picked it up.
"Good, good!" he decided as he tested its weight. "This should make
things easier."
----------------------------------------------
YOU GAIN
W A T E R S W O R D
This sword is not well-known.
According to legend, it has
more power than imaginable.
----------------------------------------------
He hurried back up the stone staircase to the Throne Room. He strode
determinedly along the red carpet to the throne. Kaileena frowned.
"It doesn't have to end this way," he told her, taking up her weapons.
He came back down, and tossed the swords to one side, clanging on the
Throne Room floor.
"Come with me," he urged, "into the Present."
"So you can kill me in your own time instead of mine?"
She gave a contemptuous laugh. Turning to her swords, a cloud of sand
whirled at her command and gathered the weapons from the floor. They
swept through the air to her arms. The Prince stared, disappointed but
defiant. He turned and ran up the steps. The Empress ran behind.
"I am sorry, Prince, but only one of us can cheat Fate today."
She advanced on her prey. The Prince turned, ran quickly to the throne
and jumped up. He drew his weapon and smashed through the wall. His angry
pursuer leaped after him with a cry, and slashed her wickedly hooked
blades. The Prince took her by the shoulders and tried to reason.
"Kaileena... Empress... listen."
She raised her weapons again. The Prince held her wrists.
"No!" she screamed. "You listen: the Timeline has said you will kill me,
but I will change the timeline."
He threw her back, and then ran towards the portal chamber. The vortex
glowed at the eye of the spiral. All was ready. The Prince turned and
felt the Amulet at his chest. Would this work? The Empress lunged towards
him with another cry. He dodged her charge, vaulted over her shoulder,
and wrestled to control her. Holding her arms back he dragged her around
and shoved hard, face shocked as she was thrown into the eye of the
portal.
Her body was seized in the vortex. Raised above the ground, her back
arched, gripped in the powerful force. She seemed to pulse with light,
became transparent, and vanished.
The Prince stood, panting hard. He knew his next step.
-----------------
Portal to Present
-----------------
He enters the Sacred Caves. There is no other exit but the high door
above, and as he scrambles up rock to ledges, the Prince knows the
Empress must have passed close ahead. He drops to a shallow pool as at
his previous passage through the caves, and climbs out to overlook the
platform arena outside. His fate will surely be decided there, one way or
another. He jumps down to land before Kaileena.
"I know what you've seen - what you think you've seen - in the Timeline,"
he reasons.
"Then you know I have no choice."
"There is always a choice, Kaileena."
"Then I choose to live," she says with cold finality, "and for you to
die!"
As she sweeps to attack he steps away.
"Stand down!" he shouts. "I do not want to kill you."
"Even if you don't want to kill me you will. The Timeline demands it."
"No Kaileena, you can change your fate. I have done so. A terrible beast
was destined to take my life, but I have freed myself from--"
Unnoticed, intense balls of Sand glow at intervals about the platform. At
these very words a roar comes from a doorway above, and the Dahaka
appears.
Kaileena shrinks back. "What is that thing?"
The nightmarish beast crashes down.
"No! How is this possible?" gasps the Prince. "I have stopped Kaileena
from dying in the Past. There are no Sands in the Hourglass."
As Kaileena stands shocked, the Prince runs at the beast with a cry of
defiance. The Dahaka knocks him aside. As guardian of the Timeline it
hunts another.
"It is Kaileena who does not belong in this Timeline," the Prince
realizes. "The beast is after her now."
Its tentacles snake out, and suck the Empress off her feet. She struggles
and cries desperately. The Prince is aghast.
"In bringing her here I have sentenced her to death."
He yells as he runs at the Dahaka.
"This is all YOUR fault."
A lunge from the Water Sword severs the tentacles that hold Kaileena. She
breaks free and stumbles to safety. The Dahaka roars in wounded fury. In
the Prince's hand the Water Sword glows faintly with brilliant blue
light.
"Could this be?" the Prince gasps. "This sword, it seems to protect me
from the Dahaka. Perhaps the beast is not so invincible after all."
At the first opportunity the Prince summons the Eye of the Storm to keep
the Dahaka in check. He slashes at it with furious might, blood spurts on
every blow. The Dahaka seems at first to be stunned. It bellows and
shakes its fists to the sky, the Prince slashing all the while. Then
suddenly it sweeps an arm across its attacker, knocks him back,
scratching to the very rim of the platform. He regains his feet, rushes
in again, and slashes over and over. The belly of the Dahaka glows at
once, as its tentacles are unleashed, sweeping around. The Prince rolls
and continues to slash. As the effect of his Time power wears off he
invokes another, gives himself precious seconds to strike.
At intervals, balls of glowing Sand discharge from the wounded body of
the Dahaka. The Prince rolls to absorb them gratefully. Each store is
another power to extend the assault, yet the Dahaka seems nearly immune.
He watches carefully for the moment when the beast sends out its
tentacles, and rolls under, and moves always behind it to slash and slash
again. It seems to him near three dozen blows are landed but the Dahaka
will not relent.
As the Prince loses strength, Kaileena lets out her whirlwind, aimed not
at the Prince but the Dahaka. The force knocks it flying clear off the
platform, where it clings to the edge. The Prince seizes his moment,
rushes over, slows Time once more and strikes down, over and over. His
Sand is running low; he takes the chance to unleash devastating Ravages
of Time. Darkness descends and rings of energy glow in orange flames as
the Prince whirls in a fury of red light, striking the Dahaka again and
again and again and again at dazzling speed, hacking and ripping through
the demon at the platform edge. Though he does severe damage, the effect
wears off too soon and even the lightning savagery of this attack is not
enough to kill the Dahaka. It leaps up from the platform edge with a
roar, flying high overhead to land with thunderous impact at its opposite
end. To the Prince's dismay it seems to have recovered strength. With
greater determination he runs to do battle once more.
The enraged demon leaps through the air to crash down on the Prince, yet
he manages to roll desperately aside. Madly it bounds high in the air to
smash him where he stands, if he stands too long, and is all too ready to
sweep him over the platform edge if he lays stunned. They move around the
vast surface of the platform arena in a deadly dance of destruction, each
testing for weakness and advantage, and each dealing damage as they go.
He manages to put distance between them and the Dahaka throws out its
probing tentacles through the surface of the platform arena. The Prince
weaves a zigzag course, as they seem to anticipate his direction and lash
up, dealing him great hurt and sapping what strength he has left. He
cannot run forever, though he is grateful to accumulate Sand to replenish
his store in the Amulet, and he closes on the Dahaka to attack it again.
Now it reverts to its tentacle sweep. The Prince keeps moving and
rolling, getting close enough to hit hard with his sword. Severely
wounded, the Dahaka leaps into the air, putting distance so that it might
hinder him again with tentacle probes. Running tiny circles keeps the
Prince safe. He takes a chance to close on the Dahaka again.
Once more, at an opportune moment Kaileena delivers her rush of wind that
blasts the Dahaka to the edge of the platform. Slowing Time, and
gathering what residual stock of Sand he can on the way, the Prince
rushes in on it. With one last chance to finish it off, the Prince
delivers the Ravages of Time once again, and the beast roars in helpless
fury as heavy blows rain down in a blur. With the last strength in his
body the Prince uses the Water Sword to run the beast through. The blade
sucks out. The Dahaka slithers over the platform edge.
-- DAWNING OF A NEW FATE ------------------------------------------------
The body of the Dahaka plunges into the sea. Alone on the platform,
Kaileena and the Prince heave a sigh. Too soon perhaps, as a shadow
falls. From a dark stain in the water the beast resurrects, rising up
enormous in a gurgle of noise and fury from the boiling sea. The Prince
readies his weapon. The now blood red eyes of the Dahaka glow intensely.
Thick tentacles wrapped in shafts of light flick out and pulse with
energy. Yet the beast cannot sustain, and in a burst of light it shrivels
and falls back to the deep.
Sunk to his knees against his sword, the Prince gasps relief. Kaileena
stands close. He looks up without emotion.
In pale light of dawn a small ship strikes out.
"Together we built this vessel," the Prince recounts. "Together we left
the Island, and together we return to Babylon."
Below deck he contemplates alone. The only sound the creak of timbers.
Behind him, Kaileena descends to the cabin. The Prince turns. Roughly he
thrusts her back against a post, runs his thumb across her cheek. She
offers no resistance.
Far over the water is a city on fire - the sound of battle rages through
Babylon.
The Prince moves to embrace Kaileena. She holds him off to take control.
His eyes widen then close as emotions are overcome.
Desperate men fight hand-to-hand. A golden crown tumbles to the foot of
stone steps.
The flames of destruction in one place are mirrored by the fire of
passion in another.
The crown comes to rest against a boot, and a black-gloved hand picks it
up.
"All that is yours is rightfully mine." The harsh voice of a cloaked
figure.
Kaileena runs her hands across the Prince's body. In fevered imagining,
they writhe in ecstasy. The cloaked figure makes a vow:
"And mine, it will be!"
For the Prince of Persia, real or imagined, the future holds a glimpse of
a loved one held prisoner on a cross, against a background of fire.
"Your journey will not end well," the last solemn words of the Old Man.
"You cannot change your fate. No man can."
-- THE END --------------------------------------------------------------
_________________________________________________________________________
(c) 2006 J Woodrow
This document includes an unofficial transcript and storyline from PRINCE
OF PERSIA: WARRIOR WITHIN (c) 2004 Ubisoft Entertainment. Copyright is
claimed for original material herein and no declaration of ownership of
previously copyrighted material is intended or should be inferred.
Transcript may contain errors or omission and is not representative work
of the acknowledged copyright owner. All contents are for personal and
private use and no part of this document may be altered or amended or
stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means for profit
without the express written permission of the copyright owner.
_________________________________________________________________________